Apple's Policy on Apple File System (APFS) for High Sierra

[ghorwith]

I've been using apfs since PB1 and it seems to be stable on an ssd (can't peak to speed though). Of course, what is unique for all the utilities is that it creates not only the boot EFI partition but also the Container partition and then a synthesized apfs formatted disk with apfs partitions (aka APFS Volumes) for the OS, Preboot, Recovery, and VM.

 

[ghorwith]

Others with more technical expertise may have additional comments. AFAIK, 10.13 will use apfs by default. Since you have spinning disks, the 10.13 installer should leave them as is with HFS+. In contrast, if your system had only flash drives, they would all be formatted or converted to APFS.

 

[tonymacx86]

--volume, path to the target volume.

Interesting- it looks like they removed the --volume argument in the latest version of startosinstall

 

[RehabMan]

Interesting- it looks like they removed the --volume argument in the latest version of startosinstall

I downloaded the latest.
Still same usage:

SPEEDY-NUC:patched rehabman$ /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --usage
Usage: startosinstall --volume <target volume path>

Arguments
--applicationpath, a path to copy of the OS installer application to start the install with.
--license, prints the user license agreement only.
--agreetolicense, agree to license the license you printed with --license.
--rebootdelay, how long to delay the reboot at the end of preparing. This delay is in seconds and has a maximum of 300 (5 minutes).
--pidtosignal, Specify a PID to which to send SIGUSR1 upon completion of the prepare phase. To bypass "rebootdelay" send SIGUSR1 back to startosinstall.
--converttoapfs, specify either YES or NO on if you wish to convert to APFS.
--installpackage, the path of a package to install after the OS installation is complete; this option can be specified multiple times.
--usage, prints this message.
--volume, path to the target volume.

Example: startosinstall --volume /Volumes/Target --converttoapfs YES

 

[tonymacx86]

Weird I wonder why my MBP does this with Public Beta 7 app:

Mac:~ Mac$ /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --usage
Usage: startosinstall

Arguments
--applicationpath, a path to copy of the OS installer application to start the install with.
--license, prints the user license agreement only.
--agreetolicense, agree to license the license you printed with --license.
--rebootdelay, how long to delay the reboot at the end of preparing. This delay is in seconds and has a maximum of 300 (5 minutes).
--pidtosignal, Specify a PID to which to send SIGUSR1 upon completion of the prepare phase. To bypass "rebootdelay" send SIGUSR1 back to startosinstall.
--converttoapfs, specify either YES or NO on if you wish to convert to APFS.
--installpackage, the path of a package to install after the OS installation is complete; this option can be specified multiple times.
--usage, prints this message.

Example: startosinstall --converttoapfs YES

 

[RehabMan]

Weird I wonder why my MBP does this with Public Beta 7 app:

Mac:~ Mac$ /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --usage
Usage: startosinstall

Arguments
--applicationpath, a path to copy of the OS installer application to start the install with.
--license, prints the user license agreement only.
--agreetolicense, agree to license the license you printed with --license.
--rebootdelay, how long to delay the reboot at the end of preparing. This delay is in seconds and has a maximum of 300 (5 minutes).
--pidtosignal, Specify a PID to which to send SIGUSR1 upon completion of the prepare phase. To bypass "rebootdelay" send SIGUSR1 back to startosinstall.
--converttoapfs, specify either YES or NO on if you wish to convert to APFS.
--installpackage, the path of a package to install after the OS installation is complete; this option can be specified multiple times.
--usage, prints this message.

Example: startosinstall --converttoapfs YES

I think your version is old.
Older versions did not have the option (at least not listed in the usage)

Just downloaded latest beta today. It has the --volume option.

 

[tonymacx86]

I think your version is old.
Older versions did not have the option (at least not listed in the usage)

Just downloaded latest beta today. It has the --volume option.

OK gotcha.

 

[Going Bald]

From what I have been reading on APFS I would not use it on any system used for making $$$.
The file storage system has no checksum and fails to protect against bitrot on storage drives.
Now this may not matter to most users - who cares if their vacation pictures from 3 or 4 years ago get truncated or corrupted and cannot be opened?
Your work client, OTOH, will be very unhappy.

 

[AnAppleADay]

Does HFS+ have checksums to protect against bitrot?

 

[vulgo]

Does HFS+ have checksums to protect against bitrot?

No. HFS+ bitrot - APFS will get new features as it goes along. Until then it has fsck (same as HFS+)