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
   6 .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
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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 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
  65 Display version information and exit.
  66 .TP
  67 .BR \-z , " \-\-zero"
  68 Start with an in-memory zeroed partition table.  This option does not zero the
  69 partition table on the disk; rather, it simply starts the program without
  70 reading the existing partition table.  This option allows you to create a new
  71 partition table from scratch or from an sfdisk-compatible script.
  72
  73 .SH COMMANDS
  74 The commands for
  75 .B cfdisk
  76 can be entered by pressing the corresponding key (pressing
  77 .I Enter
  78 after the command is not necessary).  Here is a list of the available
  79 commands:
  80 .TP
  81 .B b
  82 Toggle the bootable flag of the current partition.  This allows you to
  83 select which primary partition is bootable on the drive.  This command may not
  84 be available for all partition label types.
  85 .TP
  86 .B d
  87 Delete the current partition.  This will convert the current partition
  88 into free space and merge it with any free space immediately
  89 surrounding the current partition.  A partition already marked as free
  90 space or marked as unusable cannot be deleted.
  91 .TP
  92 .B h
  93 Show the help screen.
  94 .TP
  95 .B n
  96 Create a new partition from free space.
  97 .B cfdisk
  98 then prompts you for the size of the partition you want to create.
  99 The default size is equal to the entire available free space at the current
 100 position.
 101
 102 The size may be followed by a multiplicative suffix: KiB (=1024),
 103 MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB
 104 (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB").
 105 .TP
 106 .B q
 107 Quit the program.  This will exit the program without writing any data to
 108 the disk.
 109 .TP
 110 .B s
 111 Sort the partitions in ascending start-sector order.  When deleting and
 112 adding partitions, it is likely that the numbering of the partitions will
 113 no longer match their order on the disk.  This command restores that match.
 114 .TP
 115 .B t
 116 Change the partition type.  By default, new partitions are created as
 117 .I Linux
 118 partitions.
 119 .TP
 120 .B u
 121 Dump the current in-memory partition table to an sfdisk-compatible script file.
 122 .sp
 123 The script files are compatible between \fBcfdisk\fR, \fBfdisk\fR, \fBsfdisk\fR
 124 and other libfdisk applications.  For more details see
 125 .BR sfdisk (8).
 126 .sp
 127 It is also possible to load an sfdisk-script into \fBcfdisk\fR if there is
 128 no partition table on the device or when you start \fBcfdisk\fR with the
 129 \fB--zero\fR command-line option.
 130 .TP
 131 .B W
 132 Write the partition table to disk (you must enter an uppercase W).  Since
 133 this might destroy data on the disk, you must either confirm or deny
 134 the write by entering `yes' or `no'.  If you enter `yes',
 135 .B cfdisk
 136 will write the partition table to disk and then tell the kernel to re-read the
 137 partition table from the disk.
 138
 139 The re-reading of the partition table does not always work.  In such a
 140 case you need to inform the kernel about any new partitions by using
 141 .BR partprobe (8)
 142 or
 143 .BR partx (8),
 144 or by rebooting the system.
 145 .TP
 146 .B x
 147 Toggle extra information about a partition.
 148 .TP
 149 .IR "Up Arrow" , " Down Arrow"
 150 Move the cursor to the previous or next partition.  If there are more
 151 partitions than can be displayed on a screen, you can display the next
 152 (previous) set of partitions by moving down (up) at the last (first)
 153 partition displayed on the screen.
 154 .TP
 155 .IR "Left Arrow" , " Right Arrow"
 156 Select the preceding or the next menu item.  Hitting \fIEnter\fR will
 157 execute the currently selected item.
 158
 159 .PP
 160 All commands can be entered with either uppercase or lowercase
 161 letters (except for
 162 .BR W rite).
 163 When in a submenu or at a prompt, you can hit the
 164 .I Esc
 165 key to return to the main menu.
 166
 167 .SH COLORS
 168 Implicit coloring can be disabled by creating the empty file
 169 .IR /etc/terminal-colors.d/cfdisk.disable .
 170
 171 See
 172 .BR terminal-colors.d (5)
 173 for more details about colorization configuration.
 174
 175 .B cfdisk
 176 does not support color customization with a color-scheme file.
 177
 178 .SH ENVIRONMENT
 179 .IP CFDISK_DEBUG=all
 180 enables cfdisk debug output.
 181 .IP LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all
 182 enables libfdisk debug output.
 183 .IP LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
 184 enables libblkid debug output.
 185 .IP LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
 186 enables libsmartcols debug output.
 187 .IP LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG_PADDING=on
 188 use visible padding characters. Requires enabled LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG.
 189
 190 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 191 .BR fdisk (8),
 192 .BR parted (8),
 193 .BR partprobe (8),
 194 .BR partx (8),
 195 .BR sfdisk (8)
 196 .SH AUTHOR
 197 Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
 198 .PP
 199 The current cfdisk implementation is based on the original cfdisk
 200 from Kevin E. Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu).
 201
 202 .SH AVAILABILITY
 203 The cfdisk command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 204 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.