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Terminology
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Intro to Filesystems
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Deprecated Options
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branches
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branches-mount-timeout
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functions, categories and policies
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minfreespace
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func.readdir
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rename and link
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moveonenospc
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caching
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passthrough.io
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readahead
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inodecalc
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threads
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pin-threads
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proxy-ioprio
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<a href="config/link-cow/" class="md-nav__link">
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link-cow
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</li>
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<a href="config/fuse-msg-size/" class="md-nav__link">
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fuse-msg-size
</span>
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</li>
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<a href="config/follow-symlinks/" class="md-nav__link">
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follow-symlinks
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</li>
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<a href="config/link-exdev/" class="md-nav__link">
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link-exdev
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<a href="config/rename-exdev/" class="md-nav__link">
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rename-exdev
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<a href="config/symlinkify/" class="md-nav__link">
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symlinkify
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<a href="config/nullrw/" class="md-nav__link">
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nullrw
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<a href="config/xattr/" class="md-nav__link">
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xattr
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<a href="config/nfsopenhack/" class="md-nav__link">
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nfsopenhack
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<a href="config/statfs/" class="md-nav__link">
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statfs / statvfs
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flush-on-close
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<a href="config/export-support/" class="md-nav__link">
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export-support
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<h1 id="mergerfs-a-featureful-union-filesystem">mergerfs - a featureful union filesystem</h1>
<p><strong>mergerfs</strong> is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_mount">union
filesystem</a> that makes
multiple storage devices or filesystems appear as a single unified
directory. Built on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_in_Userspace">FUSE (Filesystem in
Userspace)</a>, it
is designed to simplify how you manage files across several
independent filesystems without the complexity, fragility, or cost of
RAID or similar storage aggregation technologies.</p>
<p>Think of mergerfs as a smart pooling layer: you can combine any number
of <a href="faq/usage_and_functionality/#can-mergerfs-be-used-with-filesystems-which-already-have-data">existing
filesystems</a>
— whether they are on hard drives, SSDs, network shares, or other
mounted storage — into what looks like one large filesystem, while
still maintaining direct access to each individual filesystem. Unlike
RAID, there's no rebuild process if a device fails. You only lose the
files that were on that specific filesystem. You can also add or
remove filesystems at any time without restructuring your entire pool.</p>
<p>mergerfs excels at cost-effective storage expansion, making it ideal
for media libraries, backups, archival data, and other write-sometimes,
read-often workloads where you need lots of space but don't want
the overhead of traditional storage technologies.</p>
<p><strong>Key advantages:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Mix and match filesystems of any size, type, or underlying device</li>
<li>No parity calculations or rebuild times</li>
<li>Add or remove filesystems on the fly</li>
<li>Direct access to files on individual filesystems when needed</li>
<li>Flexible policies for controlling where new files are created</li>
</ul>
<p>For users seeking alternatives to mhddfs, unionfs, aufs, or DrivePool,
mergerfs offers a mature, actively maintained solution with extensive
configuration options and documentation. See the <a href="project_comparisons/">project comparisons
for more comparisons.</a></p>
<h2 id="features">Features</h2>
<ul>
<li>Logically combine numerous filesystems/paths into a single
mount point (JBOFS: Just a Bunch of FileSystems)</li>
<li>Combine paths of the same or different filesystems</li>
<li>Ability to add or remove filesystems/paths without impacting the
rest of the data</li>
<li>Unaffected by individual filesystem failure</li>
<li>Configurable file creation placement</li>
<li>File IO <a href="config/passthrough/">passthrough</a> for near native IO
performance (where supported)</li>
<li>Works with filesystems of any size</li>
<li>Works with filesystems of <a href="faq/compatibility_and_integration/#what-filesystems-can-be-used-as-branches">almost any
type</a></li>
<li>Ignore read-only filesystems when creating files</li>
<li><a href="faq/technical_behavior_and_limitations/#do-hard-links-work">Hard links</a></li>
<li>Hard link <a href="config/link-cow/">copy-on-write / CoW</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime_interface/">Runtime configurability</a></li>
<li>Support for extended attributes (xattrs)</li>
<li>Support for file attributes (chattr)</li>
<li>Support for POSIX ACLs</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="non-features">Non-features</h2>
<ul>
<li>RAID like redundancy (see <a href="https://www.snapraid.it">SnapRAID</a> and
<a href="https://github.com/qvr/nonraid">NonRAID</a>)</li>
<li>LVM/RAID style block device aggregation</li>
<li>Data integrity checks, snapshots, file versioning</li>
<li>Read/write overlays on top of read-only filesystems (like OverlayFS)</li>
<li>File whiteout</li>
<li>Splitting of files across branches</li>
<li>Active rebalancing of content</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="how-it-works">How it works</h2>
<p>mergerfs logically merges multiple filesystem paths together. Not
block devices, not filesystem mounts, just paths. It acts as a proxy
to the underlying filesystem paths. Combining the behaviors of some
functions and being a selector for others.</p>
<p>When the contents of a directory are requested mergerfs combines the
list of files from each directory, deduplicating entries, and returns
that list.</p>
<p>When a file or directory is created a policy is first run to determine
which branch will be selected for the creation.</p>
<p>For functions which change attributes or remove the file the behavior
may be applied to all instances found.</p>
<p>The way in which mergerfs behaves is controlled by the
<a href="config/options/">config / options / settings</a>. More specifically by
<a href="config/functions_categories_policies/">policies</a>.</p>
<h3 id="visualization">Visualization</h3>
<div class="language-text highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span id="__span-0-1"><a id="__codelineno-0-1" name="__codelineno-0-1" href="#__codelineno-0-1"></a>A + B = C
</span><span id="__span-0-2"><a id="__codelineno-0-2" name="__codelineno-0-2" href="#__codelineno-0-2"></a>/disk1 /disk2 /merged
</span><span id="__span-0-3"><a id="__codelineno-0-3" name="__codelineno-0-3" href="#__codelineno-0-3"></a>| | |
</span><span id="__span-0-4"><a id="__codelineno-0-4" name="__codelineno-0-4" href="#__codelineno-0-4"></a>+-- /dir1 +-- /dir1 +-- /dir1
</span><span id="__span-0-5"><a id="__codelineno-0-5" name="__codelineno-0-5" href="#__codelineno-0-5"></a>| | | | | |
</span><span id="__span-0-6"><a id="__codelineno-0-6" name="__codelineno-0-6" href="#__codelineno-0-6"></a>| +-- file1 | | | +-- file1
</span><span id="__span-0-7"><a id="__codelineno-0-7" name="__codelineno-0-7" href="#__codelineno-0-7"></a>| | +-- file2 | +-- file2
</span><span id="__span-0-8"><a id="__codelineno-0-8" name="__codelineno-0-8" href="#__codelineno-0-8"></a>| | +-- file3 | +-- file3
</span><span id="__span-0-9"><a id="__codelineno-0-9" name="__codelineno-0-9" href="#__codelineno-0-9"></a>| | |
</span><span id="__span-0-10"><a id="__codelineno-0-10" name="__codelineno-0-10" href="#__codelineno-0-10"></a>+-- /dir2 | +-- /dir2
</span><span id="__span-0-11"><a id="__codelineno-0-11" name="__codelineno-0-11" href="#__codelineno-0-11"></a>| | | | |
</span><span id="__span-0-12"><a id="__codelineno-0-12" name="__codelineno-0-12" href="#__codelineno-0-12"></a>| +-- file4 | | +-- file4
</span><span id="__span-0-13"><a id="__codelineno-0-13" name="__codelineno-0-13" href="#__codelineno-0-13"></a>| | |
</span><span id="__span-0-14"><a id="__codelineno-0-14" name="__codelineno-0-14" href="#__codelineno-0-14"></a>| +-- /dir3 +-- /dir3
</span><span id="__span-0-15"><a id="__codelineno-0-15" name="__codelineno-0-15" href="#__codelineno-0-15"></a>| | | | |
</span><span id="__span-0-16"><a id="__codelineno-0-16" name="__codelineno-0-16" href="#__codelineno-0-16"></a>| | +-- file5 | +-- file5
</span><span id="__span-0-17"><a id="__codelineno-0-17" name="__codelineno-0-17" href="#__codelineno-0-17"></a>| | |
</span><span id="__span-0-18"><a id="__codelineno-0-18" name="__codelineno-0-18" href="#__codelineno-0-18"></a>+-- file6 | +-- file6
</span><span id="__span-0-19"><a id="__codelineno-0-19" name="__codelineno-0-19" href="#__codelineno-0-19"></a>+-- file7 +-- file7 +-- file7
</span></code></pre></div>
<h2 id="getting-started">Getting Started</h2>
<p>Head to the <a href="quickstart/">quick start guide</a>.</p>
<h2 id="about-this-documentation">About This Documentation</h2>
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into the wording. What is described is how it functions. If you feel
like something is not explained sufficiently or missing please <a href="support/#contact-issue-submission">ask
in one of the supported forums</a>
and the docs will be updated.</li>
<li>The search feature of MkDocs is not great. Searching for "literal
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