To mount an existing file system image, use mdconfig to specify the name of the ISO file and a free unit number. Then, refer to that unit number to mount it on an existing mount point. Once mounted, the files in the ISO will appear in the mount point. This example attaches diskimage.iso to the memory device /dev/md0 then mounts that memory device on /mnt:

# mdconfig -f diskimage.iso -u 0
# mount -t cd9660 /dev/md0 /mnt

Notice that -t cd9660 was used to mount an ISO format. If a unit number is not specified with -u, mdconfig will automatically allocate an unused memory device and output the name of the allocated unit, such as md4. Refer to mdconfig(8) for more details about this command and its options.

When a memory disk is no longer in use, its resources should be released back to the system. First, unmount the file system, then use mdconfig to detach the disk from the system and release its resources. To continue this example:

# umount /mnt
# mdconfig -d -u 0

To determine if any memory disks are still attached to the system, type mdconfig -l.

FreeBSD also supports memory disks where the storage to use is allocated from either a hard disk or an area of memory. The first method is commonly referred to as a file-backed file system and the second method as a memory-backed file system. Both types can be created using mdconfig.

To create a new memory-backed file system, specify a type of swap and the size of the memory disk to create. Then, format the memory disk with a file system and mount as usual. This example creates a 5M memory disk on unit 1. That memory disk is then formatted with the UFS file system before it is mounted:

# mdconfig -a -t swap -s 5m -u 1
# newfs -U md1
/dev/md1: 5.0MB (10240 sectors) block size 16384, fragment size 2048
        using 4 cylinder groups of 1.27MB, 81 blks, 192 inodes.
        with soft updates
super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
 160, 2752, 5344, 7936
# mount /dev/md1 /mnt
# df /mnt
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/md1        4718    4  4338     0%    /mnt

To create a new file-backed memory disk, first allocate an area of disk to use. This example creates an empty 5MB file named newimage:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=newimage bs=1k count=5k
5120+0 records in
5120+0 records out

Next, attach that file to a memory disk, label the memory disk and format it with the UFS file system, mount the memory disk, and verify the size of the file-backed disk:

# mdconfig -f newimage -u 0
# bsdlabel -w md0 auto
# newfs -U md0a
/dev/md0a: 5.0MB (10224 sectors) block size 16384, fragment size 2048
        using 4 cylinder groups of 1.25MB, 80 blks, 192 inodes.
super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
 160, 2720, 5280, 7840
# mount /dev/md0a /mnt
# df /mnt
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/md0a       4710    4  4330     0%    /mnt

It takes several commands to create a file- or memory-backed file system using mdconfig. FreeBSD also comes with mdmfs which automatically configures a memory disk, formats it with the UFS file system, and mounts it. For example, after creating newimage with dd, this one command is equivalent to running the bsdlabel, newfs, and mount commands shown above:

# mdmfs -F newimage -s 5m md0 /mnt

To instead create a new memory-based memory disk with mdmfs, use this one command:

# mdmfs -s 5m md1 /mnt

If the unit number is not specified, mdmfs will automatically select an unused memory device. For more details about mdmfs, refer to mdmfs(8).