WRITEBOOSTTAB(5)

📦 version 1.20170616, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

✨ WRITEBOOSTTAB(5) — File Formats ✨

okay bestie, buckle up, this is the manual page for writeboosttab in section 5 (that's the file formats girlies 💅). It's short, it's sweet, and it's literally just a text file that tells writeboost which disks are in love with which other disks 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

writeboosttab — the mappings of cache(d) devices 🦋 (yes, the "cache(d)" is doing a lot of work there, it means caching ↔ cached, iykyk)

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

/etc/writeboosttab

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the file writeboosttab holds all the tea about the mappings between caching and cached block devices for the writeboost utility. It's the group chat where your fast disk and your slow disk finally get introduced ✨

  • Every mapping gets its own line. One line = one situationship 💞
  • Empty lines? Ignored. Lines starting with #? Ignored. (Comments, we stan 🙌)
  • Fields on each line are separated by tabs or spaces.

Here's what each field is giving:

⭐ The first field (dm_name)

This one describes the name of the device-mapper block device that will be created as a result of the mapping.

Typically, once the mapping succeeds, the dm_name will show up in the /dev/mapper folder. Like, it manifests. Iconic behavior honestly 👑

⭐ The second field (hdd_device)

This field describes the path to the cached block device — typically the "slow" (rotational) HDD. The chill one. The one that takes its time 🐢

⭐ The third field (ssd_device).

This field describes the path to the caching block device — typically the "fast" SSD. The hustle one. The main character ⚡

⭐ The forth field (options)

This optional field describes a comma-separated list of options passed to dm-writeboost. Optional, so if you don't have anything to say, that's fine too 🙈

💡 Pro tip from the manpage: it is recommended to use reliable paths to block devices like /dev/disk/by-uuid/{UUID} or similar. Do not be out here hardcoding /dev/sdb and then crying when the kernel reshuffles your letters. We've all been there. 😭

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Here's what one single entry in the /etc/writeboosttab file looks like, no cap:

cached_hdd  /dev/disk/by-uuid/2e8260bc-024c-4252-a695-a73898c974c7  /dev/disk/by-partuuid/43372b68-3407-45fa-9b2f-61afe9c26a68  writeback_threshold=70,sync_data_interval=3600

look at her. four fields. name, slow boi, fast boi, options. perfection 💅✨

🦋 FILES 🦋

  • /etc/writeboosttab

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

  • writeboost(8) — go read this one next bestie, it's the whole point of the tab file fr fr

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Dmitry Smirnov <onlyjob@member.fsf.org>

Copyright 2015-2017 Libre Solutions Pty Ltd (http://raid6.com.au)

📜 LICENSE 📜

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. Yes bestie, "or later" — you get options, periodt 💅

This package is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. (Translation: if it breaks, that's on you, not on them 😭) See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

and that's the whole page!! 🌸 this was writeboost (the source/version tag), dated 2015-05-07, filed under WRITEBOOSTTAB(5) — thank you for coming to my TED talk, go set up your cache, slay 💖🦋✨

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