disk-utils/cfdisk.8

   1 .\" cfdisk.8 -- man page for cfdisk
   2 .\" Copyright 1994 Kevin E. Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu)
   3 .\" Copyright (C) 2014 Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
   4 .\"
   5 .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
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   9 .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
  10 .\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
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  14 .TH CFDISK 8 "March 2014" "util-linux" "System Administration"
  15 .SH NAME
  16 cfdisk \- display or manipulate a disk partition table
  17 .SH SYNOPSIS
  18 .B cfdisk
  19 [options]
  20 .RI [ device ]
  21 .SH DESCRIPTION
  22 .B cfdisk
  23 is a curses-based program for partitioning any block device.
  24 The default device is
  25 .IR /dev/sda .
  26
  27 Note that
  28 .B cfdisk
  29 provides basic partitioning functionality with a user-friendly interface.
  30 If you need advanced features, use
  31 .BR fdisk (8)
  32 instead.
  33
  34 Since version 2.25
  35 .B cfdisk
  36 supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk labels, but no longer provides any
  37 functionality for CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing.  CHS has
  38 never been important for Linux, and this addressing concept does not make any
  39 sense for new devices.
  40
  41 Since version 2.25
  42 .B cfdisk
  43 also does not provide a 'print' command any more.
  44 This functionality is provided by the utilities
  45 .BR partx (8)
  46 and
  47 .BR lsblk (8)
  48 in a very comfortable and rich way.
  49
  50 If you want to remove an old partition table from a device, use
  51 .BR wipefs (8).
  52
  53 .SH OPTIONS
  54 .TP
  55 .BR \-h , " \-\-help"
  56 Display help text and exit.
  57 .TP
  58 .BR \-L , " \-\-color" [ = \fIwhen\fR]
  59 Colorize the output.  The optional argument \fIwhen\fP
  60 can be \fBauto\fR, \fBnever\fR or \fBalways\fR.  If the \fIwhen\fR argument is omitted,
  61 it defaults to \fBauto\fR.  The colors can be disabled, for the current built-in default
  62 see \fB\-\-help\fR output. See also the COLORS section.
  63 .TP
  64 \fB\-\-lock\fR[=\fImode\fR]
  65 Use exclusive BSD lock for device or file it operates.  The optional argument
  66 \fImode\fP can be \fByes\fR, \fBno\fR (or 1 and 0) or \fBnonblock\fR.  If the \fImode\fR
  67 argument is omitted, it defaults to \fB"yes"\fR.  This option overwrites
  68 environment variable \fB$LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE\fR.  The default is not to use any
  69 lock at all, but it's recommended to avoid collisions with udevd or other
  70 tools.
  71 .TP
  72 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
  73 Display version information and exit.
  74 .TP
  75 .BR \-z , " \-\-zero"
  76 Start with an in-memory zeroed partition table.  This option does not zero the
  77 partition table on the disk; rather, it simply starts the program without
  78 reading the existing partition table.  This option allows you to create a new
  79 partition table from scratch or from an sfdisk-compatible script.
  80
  81 .SH COMMANDS
  82 The commands for
  83 .B cfdisk
  84 can be entered by pressing the corresponding key (pressing
  85 .I Enter
  86 after the command is not necessary).  Here is a list of the available
  87 commands:
  88 .TP
  89 .B b
  90 Toggle the bootable flag of the current partition.  This allows you to
  91 select which primary partition is bootable on the drive.  This command may not
  92 be available for all partition label types.
  93 .TP
  94 .B d
  95 Delete the current partition.  This will convert the current partition
  96 into free space and merge it with any free space immediately
  97 surrounding the current partition.  A partition already marked as free
  98 space or marked as unusable cannot be deleted.
  99 .TP
 100 .B h
 101 Show the help screen.
 102 .TP
 103 .B n
 104 Create a new partition from free space.
 105 .B cfdisk
 106 then prompts you for the size of the partition you want to create.
 107 The default size is equal to the entire available free space at the current
 108 position.
 109
 110 The size may be followed by a multiplicative suffix: KiB (=1024),
 111 MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB
 112 (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K" has the same meaning as "KiB").
 113 .TP
 114 .B q
 115 Quit the program.  This will exit the program without writing any data to
 116 the disk.
 117 .TP
 118 .B s
 119 Sort the partitions in ascending start-sector order.  When deleting and
 120 adding partitions, it is likely that the numbering of the partitions will
 121 no longer match their order on the disk.  This command restores that match.
 122 .TP
 123 .B t
 124 Change the partition type.  By default, new partitions are created as
 125 .I Linux
 126 partitions.
 127 .TP
 128 .B u
 129 Dump the current in-memory partition table to an sfdisk-compatible script file.
 130 .sp
 131 The script files are compatible between \fBcfdisk\fR, \fBfdisk\fR, \fBsfdisk\fR
 132 and other libfdisk applications.  For more details see
 133 .BR sfdisk (8).
 134 .sp
 135 It is also possible to load an sfdisk-script into \fBcfdisk\fR if there is
 136 no partition table on the device or when you start \fBcfdisk\fR with the
 137 \fB--zero\fR command-line option.
 138 .TP
 139 .B W
 140 Write the partition table to disk (you must enter an uppercase W).  Since
 141 this might destroy data on the disk, you must either confirm or deny
 142 the write by entering `yes' or `no'.  If you enter `yes',
 143 .B cfdisk
 144 will write the partition table to disk and then tell the kernel to re-read the
 145 partition table from the disk.
 146
 147 The re-reading of the partition table does not always work.  In such a
 148 case you need to inform the kernel about any new partitions by using
 149 .BR partprobe (8)
 150 or
 151 .BR partx (8),
 152 or by rebooting the system.
 153 .TP
 154 .B x
 155 Toggle extra information about a partition.
 156 .TP
 157 .IR "Up Arrow" , " Down Arrow"
 158 Move the cursor to the previous or next partition.  If there are more
 159 partitions than can be displayed on a screen, you can display the next
 160 (previous) set of partitions by moving down (up) at the last (first)
 161 partition displayed on the screen.
 162 .TP
 163 .IR "Left Arrow" , " Right Arrow"
 164 Select the preceding or the next menu item.  Hitting \fIEnter\fR will
 165 execute the currently selected item.
 166
 167 .PP
 168 All commands can be entered with either uppercase or lowercase
 169 letters (except for
 170 .BR W rite).
 171 When in a submenu or at a prompt, you can hit the
 172 .I Esc
 173 key to return to the main menu.
 174
 175 .SH COLORS
 176 Implicit coloring can be disabled by creating the empty file
 177 .IR /etc/terminal-colors.d/cfdisk.disable .
 178
 179 See
 180 .BR terminal-colors.d (5)
 181 for more details about colorization configuration.
 182
 183 .B cfdisk
 184 does not support color customization with a color-scheme file.
 185
 186 .SH ENVIRONMENT
 187 .IP CFDISK_DEBUG=all
 188 enables cfdisk debug output.
 189 .IP LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all
 190 enables libfdisk debug output.
 191 .IP LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
 192 enables libblkid debug output.
 193 .IP LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
 194 enables libsmartcols debug output.
 195 .IP LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG_PADDING=on
 196 use visible padding characters. Requires enabled LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG.
 197 .IP LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
 198 use exclusive BSD lock.  The mode is "1" or "0".  See \fB\-\-lock\fR for more details.
 199
 200 .SH AUTHORS
 201 Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
 202 .PP
 203 The current cfdisk implementation is based on the original cfdisk
 204 from Kevin E. Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu).
 205
 206 .SH SEE ALSO
 207 .BR fdisk (8),
 208 .BR parted (8),
 209 .BR partprobe (8),
 210 .BR partx (8),
 211 .BR sfdisk (8)
 212 .SH AVAILABILITY
 213 The cfdisk command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 214 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.