BLESS(8)

NAME
bless - set volume bootability and startup disk options

SYNOPSIS
bless --help

bless --folder directory [--folder9 directory] [--bootinfo [file]] [--bootBlockFile file] [--save9] [--saveX] [--use9] [--label name | --labelfile file] [--setBoot] [--openfolder directory] [--quiet | --verbose]

bless --mount directory [--setBoot] [--quiet | --verbose]

bless --device device [--label name | --labelfile file] [--startupfile file] [--setBoot] [--quiet | --verbose]

bless --info [directory] [--getBoot] [--plist] [--quiet | --verbose] [--version]

DESCRIPTION
bless is used to modify the volume bootability characteristics of filesystems, as well as select the active boot volume. bless has 4 modes of execution: Folder Mode, Mount Mode, Device Mode, and Info Mode. Folder Mode allows you to select a directory on a mounted volume to act as the “blessed” directory, which causes OpenFirmware to look in that directory for boot code. Both Folder Mode and Mount Mode can modify Open Firmware to boot from a specified volume, assuming it has been properly blessed. Device Mode allows you to point Open Firmware at an unmounted volume, as well as perform certain offlin modifications to the filesystem. Info Mode will print out the currently-blessed directory of a volume, or if no mountpoint is specified, the active boot volume that OF is set to boot from.

Additionally, --help can be used to display the command-line usage summary.

  FOLDER MODE
Folder Mode has the following options:
--folder directory
    Set this directory to be the Mac OS X/Darwin blessed directory, containing a BootX secondary loader for New World machines.
--folder9 directory
    Set this directory to be the 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. By default, Mac OS X will be the default OS if both --folder and --folder9 are provided.
--bootinfo [file]
    Create a BootX file in the Mac OS X/Darwin system folder using file as a source. If file is not provided, a default is used (see FILES), using a path relative to the mountpoint you are blessing. This attempts to ensure that a BootX is used that is compatible with the OS on the target volume.
--bootBlockFile file
    Set the boot blocks on the volume using the contents of file . This is required for volumes that will boot Mac OS 9.
--save9
    Used if no --folder9 flag was given, but if the pre-existing Mac OS 9 blessed system folder should be preserved.
--saveX
    Used if no --folder flag was given, but if the pre-existing Mac OS X/Darwin blessed directory should be preserved.
--use9
    Used if both --folder and --folder9 were given, but Mac OS 9 should be the default for the volume.
--label name
    Render a text label used in the OpenFirmware-based OS picker
--labelfile file
    Use a pre-rendered label used for the OpenFirmware-based OS picker
--openfolder directory
    Specify a folder to be opened in the Finder when the volume is mounted by the system.
--setBoot
    Set the system to boot off the specified partition. This is implemented in a platform-specific manner. On Darwin PPC, the Open Firmware boot-device variable is modified. On Darwin x86, the MBR partition map is adjusted to mark the specified partition as active
--quiet
    Do not print any output
--verbose
    Print verbose output

  MOUNT MODE
Mount Mode has the following options:
--mount directory
    Use the volume mounted at directory to change the active boot volume, in conjunction with --setBoot . The volume must already be properly blessed.
--setBoot
    Same as Folder Mode
--quiet
    Do not print any output
--verbose
    Print verbose output

  DEVICE MODE
Device Mode has the following options:
--device device
    Use the block device device to change the active boot volume. No volumes should be mounted from device , and the filesystem should already be properly blessed.
--label name
    Set the OpenFirmware-based OS picker label for the unmounted filesystem, using name , which should be in UTF-8 encoding.
--labelfile file
    Use a pre-rendered label used with the OpenFirmware-based OS picker.
--setBoot
    Set the system to boot off the specified partition, as with Folder and Mount Modes.
--startupfile file
    Add the file as the HFS+ StartupFile, and update other information on disk as appropriate for the startup file type.
--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 the volume mounted at directory . If directory is not specified, print information for the currently selected boot volume (which may not necessarily be ‘ / ’ .
--getBoot
    Print out the logical boot volume, based on what is currently selected. This option will take into account the fact that Open Firmware may be pointing to an auxiliary booter partition, and will print out the corresponding root partition for those cases.
--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
--version
    Print bless version and exit immediately

FILES
/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo
    Secondary loader with XML headers, used with --bootinfo flag. Used for booting New World PPC-based Macintoshes. If the argument to --bootinfo is ommitted, this file will be used as the default input.
/usr/share/misc/bootblockdata
    Boot blocks compatible with Mac OS 9.
/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" --bootBlockFile "/usr/share/misc/bootblockdata"

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"

  MOUNT MODE
To set a volume containing either Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X to be the active volume:

bless --mount "/Volumes/Mac OS" --setBoot

  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

SEE ALSO
mount(8), newfs(8), nvram(8)