ZFS-JAIL(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual ZFS-JAIL(8)
NAME
zfs-jail - attach or detach ZFS filesystem from FreeBSD jail
SYNOPSIS
zfs jail jailid|jailname filesystem
zfs unjail jailid|jailname filesystem
DESCRIPTION
The zfs-jail functionality can be used to assign a dataset onto a running
FreeBSD system jail(4), allowing zfs(8) management utilities to be run
inside of the jail(4).
To allow management of the dataset from within a jail, the jailed
property should be set and the required devfs.conf(5) entries to expose
/dev/zfs device within the jail must be present. The quota property
cannot be changed from within a jail.
To use this functionality, the jail needs the allow.mount and
allow.mount.zfs parameters set to 1 and the enforce_statfs parameter set
to a value lower than 2.
The subcommands are as follows:
jail jailid|jailname filesystem
Attach the specified filesystem to the jail identified by JID
jailid or name jailname. From now on this file system tree can
be managed from within a jail if the jailed property has been
set.
You cannot attach a jailed dataset's children to another jail.
You can also not attach the root file system of the jail or any
dataset which needs to be mounted before the zfs rc script is run
inside the jail, as it would be attached unmounted until it is
mounted from the rc script inside the jail.
After a dataset is attached to a jail and the jailed property is
set, a jailed file system cannot be mounted outside the jail,
since the jail administrator might have set the mount point to an
unacceptable value.
unjail jailid|jailname filesystem
Detaches the specified filesystem from the jail identified by JID
jailid or name jailname.
SEE ALSO
devfs.conf(5), zfsprops(7), jail(8)
CAVEATS
The root directory of jail can not be delegated to the jail with this
utility because the jail must be running with a valid root directory.
Jails are a FreeBSD feature and are not relevant on other platforms. See
jail(8) for more information on managing jails, or zfs-zone(8) for the
equivelant functionality on Linux.
FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD November 4, 2025 ZFS-JAIL(8)