NAME

lifinit − write LIF volume header on file

SYNOPSIS

lifinit [−vnnn] [−dnnn] [−n string] file

DESCRIPTION

Lifinit writes a LIF volume header on a volume or file.  Options may appear in any order. Their meanings are:

−vnnn Sets the volume size to nnn bytes. If nnn is not a multiple of 256, it will be rounded down to the next such multiple. 

−dnnn Sets the directory size to nnn file entries.  If nnn is not a multiple of 8, it will be rounded up to next such multiple. 

−n string sets the volume name to be string.  If the −n option is not specified, the volume name is set to the last component of the path name specified by file.  A legal LIF volume name is 6 characters long and is limited to upper case letters (A-Z), digits (0-9) and the underscore character (_).  The first character (if any) must be a letter.  The utility will automatically perform translation to create legal LIF volume names. Therefore, all lower-case letters are up-shifted and all other characters except numeric and underscore will be replaced with capital letter (X). If the volume name does not start with a letter, the volume name will be preceded by the capital letter (X).  The volume name will also be right padded with blanks or truncated as needed to be 6 characters long.  If -n is used with no string, the default volume name is set to 6 blanks. 

If file does not exist, a regular HP-UX disk file is created and initialized. 

The default values for volume size are 256K bytes for regular files, and the actual capacity of the device for device files. 

The default directory size is a function of the volume size. A percentage of the volume size is allocated to the volume directory as follows:

 VOLUME SIZEDIRECTORY SIZE
< 2MB~1.3%
> 2MB~0.5%
 

Each directory entry occupies 32 bytes of storage. The actual directory space is subject to the rounding rules stated above. 

Note that you should not mount the special file before using lifinit. 

HARDWARE DEPENDENCIES

Series 200, Series 300
If your media has never been initialized, it must be initialized using mediainit(1) before lifinit can be used.  (Refer to the System Administrator Manual for details concerning mediainit.) 

Series 500
You must use a character special file to access the media.  If your media has never been initialized, it must be initialized using sdfinit(1M) before lifinit can be used. 

Series 800:

The following options are also supported:

−snnn set the initial system load (ISL) start address to nnn in the volume label.  This is useful when building boot media for Series 800 systems. 

−lnnn specifies the length in bytes of the ISL code in the LIF volume. 

−ennn set the ISL blocksize to nnn bytes. 

−Knnn forces the directory start location to be the nearest multiple of nnn * 1024 bytes from the beginning of the volume.  This is necessary for booting Series 800 systems off of LIF media. 

EXAMPLES

lifinit −v500000 −d10 x
lifinit /dev/rdsk/1s2

AUTHOR

Lifinit was developed by the Hewlett-Packard Company. 

SEE ALSO

lifcp(1), lifls(1), lifrename(1), lifrm(1), sdfinit(1M), lif(4). 

DIAGNOSTICS

Lifinit returns exit code 0 if the volume is initialized successfully.  Otherwise it prints a diagnostic and returns non-zero. 

WARNING

Do not terminate lifinit once it has started executing.  Otherwise, your media could become corrupted. 

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  Version B.1,  May 11, 2021