BLESS(1) System General Commands Manual BLESS(1)
NAME
bless - set volume bootability options
SYNOPSIS
bless -folder directory [-folder9 directory] [-mount directory]
[-bootinfo file] [-bootBlocks | -bootBlockFile file] [-save9]
[-saveX] [-use9] [-system file] [-systemfile file] [-label name]
[-setOF] [-quiet | -verbose]
bless -device device [-format [fstype] [-fsargs args] [-label name]]
[-bootBlockFile file] [-mount directory] [-wrapper file]
[-system file] [-xcoff file] [-setOF] [-quiet | -verbose]
bless -info [directory] [-bootBlocks] [-plist] [-quiet | -verbose]
DESCRIPTION
bless is used to set volume bootability characteristics for PowerPC-based
Macintoshes. It can also modify Open Firmware to select a different
device to boot off of. bless has 3 modes of execution: Folder Mode,
Device Mode, and Info Mode. Folder Mode allows you to select a folder on
a mounted volume to act as the ``blessed'' system folder, and optionally
update Open Firmware to boot from that volume. Device Mode is normally
only used to format and setup a volume for the first time. Info Mode will
print out the currently-blessed folder(s) of a volume, or if no mount-
point is specified, the volume that OF is set to boot from.
FOLDER MODE
Folder Mode has the following options:
-folder directory A blessed Mac OS X/Darwin system folder, containing
a BootX secondary loader for New World machines.
-folder9 directory A Mac OS 9/Classic system folder. If both -folder
and -folder9 are given, preference can be given to
boot into Mac OS 9 by also using the -use9 flag.
-mount directory In lieu of specifying folders to bless, -mount can
be given, and the pre-existing blessed folders are
used.
-bootinfo file Create a BootX file in the Mac OS X/Darwin system
folder using file as a source.
-bootBlocks Set the boot blocks on the volume. This is required
for booting Mac OS 9. Boot blocks can be retrieved
from the System file in the blessed Mac OS 9 system
folder, or can be specified more directly using the
-bootBlockFile or -system flags.
-bootBlockFile file Extract boot blocks from file . The first 1024 bytes
are read from the data fork of that file.
-save9 Used if no -folder9 flag was given, but if the
pre-existing Mac OS 9 system folder should be pre-
served.
-saveX Used if no -folder flag was given, but if the
pre-existing Mac OS X/Darwin system folder should be
preserved.
-use9 Used if both -folder and -folder9 were given, but
Mac OS 9 should be the default for the volume.
-system file Extract boot blocks from the file System file, using
the Carbon resource manager. This will fail under
Darwin, where Carbon is not present.
-systemfile file Data fork System file to place in blessed System
Folder
-label name Render a text label used in the OpenFirmware-based
OS picker
-setOF Set the boot-device Open Firmware variable to boot
off the volume containing -folder .
-quiet Do not print any output
-verbose Print verbose output
DEVICE MODE
Device Mode has the following options:
-device device Open the block device device . No volumes should be
mounted from device .
-format [fstype] Format the device using the fstype filesystem, or if
it is not given, default to HFS+ with an HFS wrap-
per.
-fsargs arg Additional arguments to newfs for the given filesys-
tem
-label name Give the filesystem the label name (in UTF-8 encod-
ing)
-bootBlockFile file Extract boot blocks from file . The first 1024 bytes
are read from the data fork of that file.
-mount directory Use directory as a temporary mount point for the HFS
wrapper.
-wrapper file Mount the wrapper on -mount and write file into the
wrapper as the default System file.
-system file Override the file specifications for -bootBlockFile
and -wrapper and use this file instead for both
those functions.
-xcoff file Add the file as the HFS+ StartupFile, and update the
partition map to reflect it's location on disk. This
is necessary for Old World booting.
-setOF Set the boot-device Open Firmware variable to boot
off the volume containing -folder .
-quiet Do not print any output
-verbose Print verbose output
INFO MODE
Info Mode has the following options:
-info [directory] Print out the blessed system folder for directory .
If directory is not specified, print information for
the current boot-device (which may not necessarily
be `/' .
-bootBlocks Print out salient fields from the boot blocks of the
volume.
-plist Output all information in Property List (.plist)
format, suitable for parsing by CoreFoundation. This
is most useful when bless is executed from another
program and its standard output must be parsed.
-quiet Do not print any output
-verbose Print verbose output
FILES
/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.xcoff Secondary loader in XCOFF format,
used with -xcoff flag. Used for boot-
ing of Old World PPC-based Macin-
toshes
/usr/standalong/ppc/bootx.bootinfo Secondary loader with XML headers,
used with -bootinfo flag. Used for
booting New World PPC-based Macin-
toshes
/System/Library/CoreServices Typical blessed folder for Mac OS X
and Darwin
EXAMPLES
FOLDER MODE
To bless a volume with only Mac OS 9:
bless -folder9 "/Volumes/Mac OS 9/System Folder" -bootBlocks
To bless a volume with only Mac OS X or Darwin, and create the BootX
file:
bless -folder "/Volumes/Mac OS X/System/Library/CoreServices"
-bootinfo "/Volumes/Mac OS X/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo"
To set a volume containing both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X to be the active
volume:
bless -folder "/Volumes/Mac OS/System/Library/CoreServices"
-folder9 "/Volumes/Mac OS/System Folder" -bootBlocks -setOF
DEVICE MODE
To create a Mac OS X/Darwin bootable CD:
bless -device /dev/disk2s9 -format hfs -label "Darwin PPC"
-bootBlockFile "bootblocks.bin" -wrapper "cdSystem" -xcoff
"/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.xcoff"
To create a Mac OS X/Darwin bootable hard drive partition:
bless -device /dev/disk0s11 -format hfs -label "Mac OS X" -xcoff
"/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.xcoff"
...
bless -folder "/Volume/HD/System/Library/CoreServices" -folder9
"/Volume/HD/System/Library/CoreServices" -systemfile "hdSystem"
-bootBlockFile "bootblocks.bin" -bootinfo
"/Volumes/HD/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo"
INFO MODE
To gather information about the currently selected volume (as determined
by Open Firmware), suitable for piping to a program capable of parsing
Property Lists:
bless -info -plist -bootBlocks
SEE ALSO
mount(8), newfs(8), nvram(8)
BUGS
bless has no bugs
Mac OS X June 24, 2002 Mac OS X