NAME

       uml_mkcow — create a new COW file

SYNOPSIS

       uml_mkcow [-f]  [COW_file]  [backing_file]

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents briefly the uml_mkcow command.

       This  manual  page  was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original
       program does not have a manual page.  Instead, it has documentation in  HTML  format;  see
       below.

       uml_mkcow  is  a small utility to create COW (Copy-On-Write) files without the need to run
       the full UML kernel.

       NOTE: you can save a lot of disk space using COW files.  When checking the size of the COW
       file  in  order to see the gobs of space that you're saving, make sure you use 'ls -ls' to
       see the actual disk consumption rather than the length  of  the  file.  The  COW  file  is
       sparse, so the length will be very different from the disk usage.

OPTIONS

       -f        Force overwrite of an exsiting COW file.

EXAMPLES

       Create a new COW file:

       uml_mkcow rootfs_COW rootfs

       Overwrite (destroying) an existing COW file:

       uml_mkcow -f rootfs_COW rootfs

SEE ALSO

       The UserModeLinux-HOWTO (link to URL http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/UserModeLinux-
       HOWTO.html)

AUTHOR

       uml_mkcow was written by Steve Schnepp.

       This manual page  was  written  by  Mattia  Dongili  malattia@debian.org  for  the  Debian
       GNU/Linux system, based on material in the UserModeLinux-HOWTO by Rusty Russell.

                                                                                     UML_MKCOW(1)