available but not yet used. Specifically the following use cases are among those covered:</para>
<itemizedlist>
- <listitem><para>The root partition may be grown to cover the whole available disk space</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>A <filename>/home/</filename>, swap or <filename>/srv</filename> partition can be added in</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>A second (or third, …) root partition may be added in, to cover A/B style setups
+ <listitem><para>The root partition may be grown to cover the whole available disk space.</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>A <filename>/home/</filename>, swap or <filename>/srv/</filename> partition can be
+ added.</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>A second (or third, …) root partition may be added, to cover A/B style setups
where a second version of the root file system is alternatingly used for implementing update
schemes. The deployed image would carry only a single partition ("A") but on first boot a second
partition ("B") for this purpose is automatically created.</para></listitem>
<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>The <filename>repart.d/*.conf</filename> configuration files are loaded and parsed,
- and ordered by filename (without the directory suffix). </para></listitem>
+ and ordered by filename (without the directory prefix).</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>The partition table already existing on the block device is loaded and
parsed.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>As exception to the normally strictly incremental operation, when called in a special "factory
- reset" mode <command>systemd-repart</command> may also be used to erase select existing partitions to
+ reset" mode, <command>systemd-repart</command> may also be used to erase existing partitions to
reset an installation back to vendor defaults. This mode of operation is used when either the
<option>--factory-reset=yes</option> switch is passed on the tool's command line, or the
<option>systemd.factory_reset=yes</option> option specified on the kernel command line, or the
<varname>FactoryReset</varname> EFI variable (vendor UUID
<constant>8cf2644b-4b0b-428f-9387-6d876050dc67</constant>) is set to "yes". It alters the algorithm above
- slightly: between the 3rd and the 4th step above the any partition marked explicitly via the
+ slightly: between the 3rd and the 4th step above any partition marked explicitly via the
<varname>FactoryReset=</varname> boolean is deleted, and the algorithm restarted, thus immediately
re-creating these partitions anew empty.</para>
also be set explicitly, formatted as UUID via the <option>--seed=</option> option. By hashing these UUIDs
from a common seed images prepared with this tool become reproducible and the result of the algorithm
above deterministic.</para>
+
+ <para>The positional argument should specify the block device to operate on. Instead of a block device
+ node path a regular file may be specified too, in which case the command operates on it like it would if
+ a loopback block device node was specified with the file attached. If <option>--empty=create</option> is
+ specified the specified path is created as regular file, which is useful for generating disk images from
+ scratch.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--empty=</option></term>
<listitem><para>Takes one of <literal>refuse</literal>, <literal>allow</literal>,
- <literal>require</literal> or <literal>force</literal>. Controls how to operate on block devices that
- are entirely empty, i.e. carry no partition table/disk label yet. If this switch is not specified the
- implied default is <literal>refuse</literal>.</para>
+ <literal>require</literal>, <literal>force</literal> or <literal>create</literal>. Controls how to
+ operate on block devices that are entirely empty, i.e. carry no partition table/disk label yet. If
+ this switch is not specified the implied default is <literal>refuse</literal>.</para>
<para>If <literal>refuse</literal> <command>systemd-repart</command> requires that the block device
it shall operate on already carries a partition table and refuses operation if none is found. If
exists so far, and refuse operation if one already exists. If <literal>force</literal> it will create
a fresh partition table unconditionally, erasing the disk fully in effect. If
<literal>force</literal> no existing partitions will be taken into account or survive the
- operation. Hence: use with care, this is a great way to lose all your data.</para></listitem>
+ operation. Hence: use with care, this is a great way to lose all your data. If
+ <literal>create</literal> a new loopback file is create under the path passed via the device node
+ parameter, of the size indicated with <option>--size=</option>, see below.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
the implied default. Controls whether to issue the <constant>BLKDISCARD</constant> I/O control
command on the space taken up by any added partitions or on the space in between them. Usually, it's
a good idea to issue this request since it tells the underlying hardware that the covered blocks
- shall be considered empty, improving performance.</para></listitem>
+ shall be considered empty, improving performance. If operating on a regular file instead of a block
+ device node, a sparse file is generated.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--size=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a size in bytes, using the usual K, M, G, T suffixes. If used the specified
+ device node path must refer to a regular file, which is then grown to the specified size if smaller,
+ before any change is made to the partition table. This is not supported if the specified node is a
+ block device. This switch has no effect if the file is already as large as the specified size or
+ larger. The specified size is implicitly rounded up to multiples of 4096. When used with
+ <option>--empty=create</option> this specifies the initial size of the loopback file to
+ create.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--definitions=</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Takes a file system path. If specified the <filename>*.conf</filename> are directly
- read from the specified directory instead of searching in
- <filename>/usr/lib/repart.d/*.conf</filename>, <filename>/etc/repart.d/*.conf</filename>,
+ <listitem><para>Takes a file system path. If specified the <filename>*.conf</filename> files are read
+ from the specified directory instead of searching in <filename>/usr/lib/repart.d/*.conf</filename>,
+ <filename>/etc/repart.d/*.conf</filename>,
<filename>/run/repart.d/*.conf</filename>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
projects / thirdparty / systemd.git / blobdiff