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MERGERFS(1)			 User Commands			   MERGERFS(1)

NAME
       mergerfs	- a featureful union filesystem

SYNOPSIS
       mergerfs	[options] <branches> <mountpoint>

DESCRIPTION
       mergerfs	 is  a	FUSE-based union filesystem geared towards simplifying
       storage and management of files across numerous commodity  storage  de-
       vices. It is similar to mhddfs, unionfs,	and aufs.

QUICKSTART
       <https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs/latest/quickstart>

DOCUMENTATION
       <https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs>

SUPPORT
       <https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs/latest/support>

FEATURES
        Logically  combine  numerous  filesystems/paths  into	a single mount
	 point

        Combine paths of the same or different	filesystems

        Ability to add	or remove filesystems/paths without impacting the rest
	 of the	data

        Unaffected by individual filesystem failure

        Configurable file selection and creation placement

        Works with filesystems	of any size

        Works with filesystems	of almost any type

        Ignore	read-only filesystems when creating files

        Hard link copy-on-write / CoW

        Runtime configurable

        Support for extended attributes (xattrs)

        Support for file attributes (chattr)

        Support for POSIX ACLs

NON-FEATURES
        Read/write overlay on top of read-only	filesystem like	OverlayFS

        File whiteout

        RAID-like parity calculation

        Redundancy

        Splitting of files across branches

HOW IT WORKS
       mergerfs	logically merges multiple filesystem paths together.  It  acts
       as  a proxy to the underlying filesystem	paths, combining the behaviors
       of some functions and being a selector for others.

       When the	contents of a directory	are requested, mergerfs	 combines  the
       list  of	 files from each directory, deduplicating entries, and returns
       that list.

       When a file or directory	is created, a policy is	first run to determine
       which branch will be selected for the creation.

       For functions which change attributes or	remove the file, the  behavior
       may be applied to all instances found.

       Read	       more	      about	      policies		 here:
       <https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs/latest/config/functions_categories_policies>

VISUALIZATION
       A	 +	B	 =	 C
       /disk1		/disk2		 /merged
       |		|		 |
       +-- /dir1	+-- /dir1	 +-- /dir1
       |   |		|   |		 |   |
       |   +-- file1	|   +--	file2	 |   +-- file1
       |		|   +--	file3	 |   +-- file2
       +-- /dir2	|		 |   +-- file3
       |   |		+-- /dir3	 |
       |   +-- file4	    |		 +-- /dir2
       |		     +-- file5	 |   |
       +-- file6			 |   +-- file4
					 |
					 +-- /dir3
					 |   |
					 |   +-- file5
					 |
					 +-- file6

SPONSORSHIP AND	DONATIONS
       Development and support of a project like mergerfs require  a  signifi-
       cant amount of time and effort. The software is released	under the very
       liberal	ISC  license and is therefore free to use for personal or com-
       mercial uses.

       If you are a non-commercial user	and  find  mergerfs  and  its  support
       valuable	and would like to support the project financially, it would be
       very much appreciated.

       If  you are using mergerfs commercially,	please consider	sponsoring the
       project to ensure it continues to be maintained and receive updates. If
       custom features are needed, feel	free to	 contact  the  maintainer  di-
       rectly.

       <https://github.com/trapexit/support>

LICENSE
       ISC License

AUTHOR
       Antonio SJ Musumeci (aka	trapexit)

mergerfs			   May 2025			   MERGERFS(1)

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