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PHYBS(1)		    General Commands Manual		      PHYBS(1)

NAME
       phybs --	reveal a storage device's physical block size

SYNOPSIS
       phybs [-rsw] [-l	minsize] [-h maxsize] [-t total] device

DESCRIPTION
       The  phybs utility runs a series	of I/O benchmarks designed to reveal a
       storage device's	physical block size by comparing  the  performance  of
       small and large I/O operations at various (mis-)alignments.

       The phybs utility makes a series	of passes with increasing block	sizes.
       In  each	pass, it either	reads or writes	(or both) a number of non-con-
       secutive	blocks at increasing offsets relative to the ideal  alignment,
       which  is  assumed  to be multiples of the block	size.  The results are
       presented in terms of time elapsed, transactions	per second and kB  per
       second.

       If  the	device's  physical block size is larger	than its logical block
       size, peak performance will be obtained when reading or writing	multi-
       ples  of	the physical block size	at offsets which are also multiples of
       the physical block size,	while I/O operations which do not  meet	 these
       criteria	will be	significantly slower.

       The following options are available:

       -h maxsize  Specify  the	 maximum  block	 size to test.	This must be a
		   power of two	and a multiple of the minimum block size  (see
		   -l).	 The default is	eight times the	minimum	block size.

       -l minsize  Specify  the	 minimum  block	 size to test.	This must be a
		   power of two	and a multiple of the device's	logical	 block
		   size.  The default is the device's logical block size.

       -r	   Perform read	operations.  This is the default.

       -s	   Open	the device in synchronous mode.

       -t total	   Specify  the	 total amount of data to read or write in each
		   pass.  This must be a power of two and a  multiple  of  the
		   maximum  block  size	(see -h).  For best results, it	should
		   also	be significantly larger	 than  the  device's  on-board
		   cache.  The default is 128 MB.

       -w	   Perform write operations.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
       The  phybs utility can be used on files as well as raw devices, but the
       characteristics of the underlying file system  will  greatly  influence
       the  results,  possibly to the point where they can not reveal anything
       of interest about the actual device.

       The phybs utility reports the benchmark results,	but makes  no  attempt
       at interpreting them.

EXIT STATUS
       The  phybs  utility  returns  EX_OK if the benchmark completed success-
       fully, EX_USAGE if the parameters specified on the  command  line  were
       invalid,	EX_PERM	if the user does not have permission to	open the spec-
       ified  device,  EX_IOERR	 if  it	 was  interrupted by an	I/O error, and
       EX_OSERR	if it was interrupted for any other reason.

SEE ALSO
       recoverdisk(1) sysexits(3) diskinfo(8)

AUTHORS
       The phybs utility and this  manual  page	 were  written	by  Dag-Erling
       Smorgrav	<des@FreeBSD.org>.

FreeBSD	ports 15.0	      September	26, 2011		      PHYBS(1)

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<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=phybs&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

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