disk-utils/sfdisk.8

   1 .\" sfdisk.8 -- man page for sfdisk
   2 .\" Copyright (C) 2014 Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
   3 .\"
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  13 .TH SFDISK 8 "June 2015" "util-linux" "System Administration"
  14 .SH NAME
  15 sfdisk \- display or manipulate a disk partition table
  16 .SH SYNOPSIS
  17 .B sfdisk
  18 [options]
  19 .I device
  20 .RB [ \-N
  21 .IR partition-number ]
  22 .sp
  23 .B sfdisk
  24 [options]
  25 .I command
  26 .SH DESCRIPTION
  27 .B sfdisk
  28 is a script-oriented tool for partitioning any block device.  It
  29 runs in interactive mode if executed on terminal (stdin refers to a terminal).
  30
  31 Since version 2.26
  32 .B sfdisk
  33 supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk labels, but no longer provides any
  34 functionality for CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing.  CHS has
  35 never been important for Linux, and this addressing concept does not make any
  36 sense for new devices.
  37 .sp
  38 .B sfdisk
  39 (since version 2.26)
  40 .B aligns the start and end of partitions
  41 to block-device I/O limits when relative sizes are specified, when the default
  42 values are used or when multiplicative suffixes (e.g., MiB) are used for sizes.
  43 It is possible that partition size will be optimized (reduced or enlarged) due
  44 to alignment if the start offset is specified exactly in sectors and partition
  45 size relative or by multiplicative suffixes.
  46
  47 The recommended way is not to specify start offsets at all and specify
  48 partition size in MiB, GiB (or so).  In this case sfdisk align all partitions
  49 to block-device I/O limits (or when I/O limits are too small then to megabyte
  50 boundary to keep disk layout portable).  If this default behaviour is unwanted
  51 (usually for very small partitions) then specify offsets and sizes in
  52 sectors.  In this case sfdisk entirely follows specified numbers without any
  53 optimization.
  54 .sp
  55 .B sfdisk
  56 does not create the standard system partitions for SGI and SUN disk labels like
  57 .BR fdisk (8)
  58 does.
  59 It is necessary to explicitly create all partitions including whole-disk system
  60 partitions.
  61
  62 .B sfdisk
  63 uses BLKRRPART (reread partition table) ioctl to make sure that the device is
  64 not used by system or other tools (see also \-\-no-reread).  It's possible that
  65 this feature or another sfdisk activity races with \fBudevd\fR.  The recommended way
  66 how to avoid possible collisions is to use \fB\-\-lock\fR option.
  67 The exclusive lock will cause udevd to skip the event handling on the device.
  68 .PP
  69 The sfdisk prompt is only a hint for users and a displayed partition number does
  70 not mean that the same partition table entry will be created (if -N not
  71 specified), especially for tables with gaps.
  72
  73 .SH COMMANDS
  74 The commands are mutually exclusive.
  75 .TP
  76 .RB [ \-N " \fIpartition-number\fR] " \fIdevice\fR
  77 The default \fBsfdisk\fR command is to read the specification for the desired
  78 partitioning of \fIdevice\fR from standard input, and then create a partition
  79 table according to the specification.  See below for the description of the
  80 input format.  If standard input is a terminal, then \fBsfdisk\fR starts an
  81 interactive session.
  82 .sp
  83 If the option \fB\-N\fR is specified, then the changes are applied to
  84 the partition addressed by \fIpartition-number\fR.  The unspecified fields
  85 of the partition are not modified.
  86 .sp
  87 Note that it's possible to address an unused partition with \fB\-N\fR.
  88 For example, an MBR always contains 4 partitions, but the number of used
  89 partitions may be smaller.  In this case \fBsfdisk\fR follows the default
  90 values from the partition table and does not use built-in defaults for the
  91 unused partition given with \fB\-N\fR.  See also \fB\-\-append\fR.
  92 .TP
  93 .BR \-A , " \-\-activate \fIdevice " [ \fIpartition-number...]
  94 Switch on the bootable flag for the specified partitions and switch off the
  95 bootable flag on all unspecified partitions. The special placeholder '\-'
  96 may be used instead of the partition numbers to switch off the bootable flag
  97 on all partitions.
  98
  99 The activation command is supported for MBR and PMBR only.  If GPT label is detected
 100 than sfdisk prints warning and automatically enter PMBR.
 101
 102 If no \fIpartition-number\fR is specified, then list the partitions with an
 103 enabled flag.
 104 .TP
 105 .BR "\-\-delete \fIdevice " [ \fIpartition-number ...]
 106 Delete all or the specified partitions.
 107 .TP
 108 .BR \-d , " \-\-dump " \fIdevice\fR
 109 Dump the partitions of a device in a format that is usable as input to \fBsfdisk\fR.
 110 See the section \fBBACKING UP THE PARTITION TABLE\fR.
 111 .TP
 112 .BR \-g , " \-\-show\-geometry " [ \fIdevice ...]
 113 List the geometry of all or the specified devices. For backward
 114 compatibility the deprecated option \fB\-\-show\-pt\-geometry\fR have the same
 115 meaning as this one.
 116 .TP
 117 .BR \-J , " \-\-json " \fIdevice\fR
 118 Dump the partitions of a device in JSON format.  Note that \fBsfdisk\fR is
 119 not able to use JSON as input format.
 120 .TP
 121 .BR \-l , " \-\-list " [ \fIdevice ...]
 122 List the partitions of all or the specified devices.  This command can be used
 123 together with \fB\-\-verify\fR.
 124 .TP
 125 .BR \-F , " \-\-list-free " [ \fIdevice ...]
 126 List the free unpartitioned areas on all or the specified devices.
 127 .TP
 128 .BR "\-\-part\-attrs \fIdevice partition-number " [ \fIattributes ]
 129 Change the GPT partition attribute bits.  If \fIattributes\fR is not specified,
 130 then print the current partition settings.
 131 .sp
 132 The \fIattributes\fR argument is a
 133 comma- or space-delimited list of bits.  The currently supported attribute
 134 bits are: RequiredPartition, NoBlockIOProtocol, LegacyBIOSBootable
 135 and GUID-specific bits in the range from 48 to 63.  For example, the string
 136 "RequiredPartition,50,51" sets three bits.
 137 .TP
 138 .BR "\-\-part\-label \fIdevice partition-number " [ \fIlabel ]
 139 Change the GPT partition name (label).  If \fIlabel\fR is not specified,
 140 then print the current partition label.
 141 .TP
 142 .BR "\-\-part\-type \fIdevice partition-number " [ \fItype ]
 143 Change the partition type.  If \fItype\fR is not specified, then print the
 144 current partition type.
 145 .sp
 146 The \fItype\fR argument is hexadecimal for MBR,
 147 GUID for GPT, type alias (e.g. "linux") or type shortcut (e.g. 'L').
 148 For backward compatibility the options \fB\-c\fR and
 149 \fB\-\-id\fR have the same meaning as this one.
 150 .TP
 151 .BR "\-\-part\-uuid \fIdevice partition-number " [ \fIuuid ]
 152 Change the GPT partition UUID.  If \fIuuid\fR is not specified,
 153 then print the current partition UUID.
 154 .TP
 155 .BR "\-\-disk\-id \fIdevice " [ \fIid ]
 156 Change the disk identifier.  If \fIid\fR is not specified,
 157 then print the current identifier.  The identifier is UUID for GPT
 158 or unsigned integer for MBR.
 159 .TP
 160 .BR \-r , " \-\-reorder " \fIdevice
 161 Renumber the partitions, ordering them by their start offset.
 162 .TP
 163 .BR \-s , " \-\-show\-size " [ \fIdevice ...]
 164 List the sizes of all or the specified devices in units of 1024 byte size.
 165 This command is DEPRECATED in favour of
 166 .BR blockdev (8).
 167 .TP
 168 .BR \-T , " \-\-list\-types"
 169 Print all supported types for the current disk label or the label specified by
 170 \fB\-\-label\fR.
 171 .TP
 172 .BR \-V , " \-\-verify " [ \fIdevice ...]
 173 Test whether the partition table and partitions seem correct.
 174 .TP
 175 .BR "\-\-relocate \fIoper " \fIdevice
 176 Relocate partition table header. This command is currently supported for GPT header only.
 177 The argument \fIoper\fP can be:
 178 .RS
 179 .TP
 180 .B gpt-bak-std
 181 Move GPT backup header to the standard location at the end of the device.
 182 .TP
 183 .B gpt-bak-mini
 184 Move GPT backup header behind the last partition. Note that UEFI
 185 standard requires the backup header at the end of the device and partitioning
 186 tools can automatically relocate the header to follow the standard.
 187 .RE
 188 .SH OPTIONS
 189 .TP
 190 .BR \-a , " \-\-append"
 191 Don't create a new partition table, but only append the specified partitions.
 192 .sp
 193 Note that unused partition maybe be re-used in this case although it is not the
 194 last partition in the partition table. See also \fB\-N\fR to specify entry in
 195 the partition table.
 196 .TP
 197 .BR \-b , " \-\-backup"
 198 Back up the current partition table sectors before starting the partitioning.
 199 The default backup file name is ~/sfdisk-<device>-<offset>.bak; to use another
 200 name see option \fB\-O\fR, \fB\-\-backup\-file\fR.
 201 .TP
 202 .BR \-\-color [ =\fIwhen ]
 203 Colorize the output.  The optional argument \fIwhen\fP
 204 can be \fBauto\fR, \fBnever\fR or \fBalways\fR.  If the \fIwhen\fR argument is omitted,
 205 it defaults to \fBauto\fR.  The colors can be disabled; for the current built-in default
 206 see the \fB\-\-help\fR output.  See also the \fBCOLORS\fR section.
 207 .TP
 208 .BR \-f , " \-\-force"
 209 Disable all consistency checking.
 210 .TP
 211 .B \-\-Linux
 212 Deprecated and ignored option.  Partitioning that is compatible with
 213 Linux (and other modern operating systems) is the default.
 214 .TP
 215 \fB\-\-lock\fR[=\fImode\fR]
 216 Use exclusive BSD lock for device or file it operates.  The optional argument
 217 \fImode\fP can be \fByes\fR, \fBno\fR (or 1 and 0) or \fBnonblock\fR.  If the \fImode\fR
 218 argument is omitted, it defaults to \fB"yes"\fR.  This option overwrites
 219 environment variable \fB$LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE\fR.  The default is not to use any
 220 lock at all, but it's recommended to avoid collisions with udevd or other
 221 tools.
 222 .TP
 223 .BR \-n , " \-\-no\-act"
 224 Do everything except writing to the device.
 225 .TP
 226 .B \-\-no\-reread
 227 Do not check through the re-read-partition-table ioctl whether the device is in use.
 228 .TP
 229 .B \-\-no\-tell\-kernel
 230 Don't tell the kernel about partition changes. This option is recommended together
 231 with \fB\-\-no\-reread\fR to modify a partition on used disk. The modified partition
 232 should not be used (e.g., mounted).
 233 .TP
 234 .BR \-O , " \-\-backup\-file " \fIpath
 235 Override the default backup file name.  Note that the device name and offset
 236 are always appended to the file name.
 237 .TP
 238 .BR \-\-move-data [ =\fIpath ]
 239 Move data after partition relocation, for example when moving the beginning
 240 of a partition to another place on the disk.  The size of the partition has
 241 to remain the same, the new and old location may overlap.  This option requires
 242 option \fB\-N\fR in order to be processed on one specific partition only.
 243
 244 The optional \fIpath\fR specifies log file name. The log file contains information
 245 about all read/write operations on the partition data. The word "@default" as
 246 a \fIpath\fR forces sfdisk to use ~/sfdisk-<devname>.move for the log.  The log is
 247 optional since v2.35.
 248
 249 Note that this operation is risky and not atomic. \fBDon't forget to backup your data!\fR
 250
 251 See also \fB\-\-move\-use\-fsync\fR.
 252
 253 In the example below, the first command creates a 100MiB free area before
 254 the first partition and moves the data it contains (e.g., a filesystem),
 255 the next command creates a new partition from the free space (at offset 2048),
 256 and the last command reorders partitions to match disk order
 257 (the original sdc1 will become sdc2).
 258 .RS
 259 .sp
 260 .B "echo '+100M,' | sfdisk \-\-move-data /dev/sdc \-N 1"
 261 .br
 262 .B "echo '2048,' | sfdisk /dev/sdc \-\-append
 263 .br
 264 .B sfdisk /dev/sdc \-\-reorder
 265 .sp
 266 .RE
 267
 268 .TP
 269 .B \-\-move\-use\-fsync
 270 Use fsync system call after each write when move data to a new location by
 271 \fB\-\-move\-data\fR.
 272 .TP
 273 .BR \-o , " \-\-output " \fIlist
 274 Specify which output columns to print.  Use
 275 .B \-\-help
 276 to get a list of all supported columns.
 277 .sp
 278 The default list of columns may be extended if \fIlist\fP is
 279 specified in the format \fI+list\fP (e.g., \fB\-o +UUID\fP).
 280 .TP
 281 .BR \-q , " \-\-quiet"
 282 Suppress extra info messages.
 283 .TP
 284 .BR \-u , " \-\-unit S"
 285 Deprecated option.  Only the sector unit is supported. This option is not
 286 supported when using the \-\-show-size command.
 287 .TP
 288 .BR \-X , " \-\-label " \fItype
 289 Specify the disk label type (e.g., \fBdos\fR, \fBgpt\fR, ...).  If this option
 290 is not given, then \fBsfdisk\fR defaults to the existing label, but if there
 291 is no label on the device yet, then the type defaults to \fBdos\fR. The default
 292 or the current label may be overwritten by the "label: <name>" script header
 293 line. The option \fB\-\-label\fR does not force \fBsfdisk\fR to create empty
 294 disk label (see the \fBEMPTY DISK LABEL\fR section below).
 295 .TP
 296 .BR \-Y , " \-\-label\-nested " \fItype
 297 Force editing of a nested disk label.  The primary disk label has to exist already.
 298 This option allows to edit for example a hybrid/protective MBR on devices with GPT.
 299
 300 .TP
 301 .BR \-w , " \-\-wipe "\fIwhen
 302 Wipe filesystem, RAID and partition-table signatures from the device, in order
 303 to avoid possible collisions.  The argument \fIwhen\fR can be \fBauto\fR,
 304 \fBnever\fR or \fBalways\fR.  When this option is not given, the default is
 305 \fBauto\fR, in which case signatures are wiped only when in interactive mode;
 306 except the old partition-table signatures which are always wiped before create
 307 a new partition-table if the argument \fIwhen\fR is not \fBnever\fR. In all
 308 cases detected signatures are reported by warning messages before a new
 309 partition table is created.  See also
 310 .BR wipefs (8)
 311 command.
 312
 313 .TP
 314 .BR \-W , " \-\-wipe-partitions "\fIwhen
 315 Wipe filesystem, RAID and partition-table signatures from a newly created
 316 partitions, in order to avoid possible collisions.  The argument \fIwhen\fR can
 317 be \fBauto\fR, \fBnever\fR or \fBalways\fR.  When this option is not given, the
 318 default is \fBauto\fR, in which case signatures are wiped only when in
 319 interactive mode and after confirmation by user.  In all cases detected
 320 signatures are reported by warning messages after a new partition is created.
 321 See also
 322 .BR wipefs (8)
 323 command.
 324
 325 .TP
 326 .BR \-v , " \-\-version"
 327 Display version information and exit.
 328 .TP
 329 .BR \-h , " \-\-help"
 330 Display help text and exit.
 331
 332 .SH INPUT FORMATS
 333 .B sfdisk
 334 supports two input formats and generic header lines.
 335
 336 .B Header lines
 337 .RS
 338 The optional header lines specify generic information that apply to the partition
 339 table.  The header-line format is:
 340 .RS
 341 .sp
 342 .B "<name>: <value>"
 343 .sp
 344 .RE
 345 The currently recognized headers are:
 346 .RS
 347 .TP
 348 .B unit
 349 Specify the partitioning unit.  The only supported unit is \fBsectors\fR.
 350 .TP
 351 .B label
 352 Specify the partition table type.  For example \fBdos\fR or \fBgpt\fR.
 353 .TP
 354 .B label-id
 355 Specify the partition table identifier.  It should be a  hexadecimal number
 356 (with a 0x prefix) for MBR and a UUID for GPT.
 357 .TP
 358 .B first-lba
 359 Specify the first usable sector for GPT partitions.
 360 .TP
 361 .B last-lba
 362 Specify the last usable sector for GPT partitions.
 363 .TP
 364 .B table-length
 365 Specify the maximal number of GPT partitions.
 366 .TP
 367 .B grain
 368 Specify minimal size in bytes used to calculate partitions alignment.  The
 369 default is 1MiB and it's strongly recommended to use the default.  Do not
 370 modify this variable if you're not sure.
 371 .TP
 372 .B sector-size
 373 Specify sector size. This header is informative only and it is not used when
 374 sfdisk creates a new partition table, in this case the real device specific
 375 value is always used and sector size from the dump is ignored.
 376 .RE
 377 .sp
 378 Note that it is only possible to use header lines before the first partition
 379 is specified in the input.
 380 .RE
 381
 382 .B Unnamed-fields format
 383 .RS
 384 .RS
 385 .sp
 386 .I start size type bootable
 387 .sp
 388 .RE
 389 where each line fills one partition descriptor.
 390 .sp
 391 Fields are separated by whitespace, comma or semicolon possibly
 392 followed by whitespace; initial and trailing whitespace is ignored.
 393 Numbers can be octal, decimal or hexadecimal; decimal is the default.
 394 When a field is absent, empty or specified as '\-' a default value is
 395 used.  But when the \fB\-N\fR option (change a single partition) is
 396 given, the default for each field is its previous value.
 397 .sp
 398 The default value of
 399 .I start
 400 is the first non-assigned sector aligned according to device I/O limits.
 401 The default start offset for the first partition is 1 MiB.  The offset may
 402 be followed by the multiplicative suffixes (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB,
 403 EiB, ZiB and YiB) then the number is interpreted as offset in bytes.
 404 .sp
 405 The default value of
 406 .I size
 407 indicates "as much as possible"; i.e., until the next partition or
 408 end-of-device.  A numerical argument is by default interpreted as a
 409 number of sectors, however if the size is followed by one of the
 410 multiplicative suffixes (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB)
 411 then the number is interpreted as the size of the partition in bytes
 412 and it is then aligned according to the device I/O limits.  A '+' can
 413 be used instead of a number to enlarge the partition as much as
 414 possible.  Note '+' is equivalent to the default behaviour for a new
 415 partition; existing partitions will be resized as required.
 416 .sp
 417 The partition
 418 .I type
 419 is given in hex for MBR (DOS) where 0x prefix is optional; a GUID string for
 420 GPT; a shortcut or an alias. It's recommended to use two letters for MBR hex codes to
 421 avoid collision between deprecated shortcut 'E' and '0E' MBR hex code. For backward
 422 compatibility sfdisk tries to interpret
 423 .I type
 424 as a shortcut as a first possibility in partitioning scripts although on other places (e.g.
 425 \fB\-\-part-type command)\fR it tries shortcuts as the last possibility.
 426
 427 Since v2.36 libfdisk supports partition type aliases as extension to shortcuts. The alias is a
 428 simple human readable word (e.g. "linux").
 429
 430 Supported shortcuts and aliases:
 431 .RS
 432 .TP
 433 .B L - alias 'linux'
 434 Linux; means 83 for MBR and 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4 for GPT.
 435 .TP
 436 .B S - alias 'swap'
 437 swap area; means 82 for MBR and 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F for GPT
 438 .TP
 439 .B Ex - alias 'extended'
 440 MBR extended partition; means 05 for MBR.  The original shortcut 'E' is deprecated due to collision with
 441 0x0E MBR partition type.
 442 .TP
 443 .B H - alias 'home'
 444 home partition; means 933AC7E1-2EB4-4F13-B844-0E14E2AEF915 for GPT
 445 .TP
 446 .B U - alias 'uefi'
 447 EFI System partition, means EF for MBR and C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B for GPT
 448 .TP
 449 .B R - alias 'raid'
 450 Linux RAID; means FD for MBR and A19D880F-05FC-4D3B-A006-743F0F84911E for GPT
 451 .TP
 452 .B V - alias 'lvm'
 453 LVM; means 8E for MBR and E6D6D379-F507-44C2-A23C-238F2A3DF928 for GPT
 454 .RE
 455 .PP
 456 The default
 457 .I type
 458 value is
 459 .I linux
 460 .sp
 461 The shortcut 'X' for Linux extended partition (85) is deprecated in favour of 'Ex'.
 462
 463 .I bootable
 464 is specified as [\fB*\fR|\fB-\fR], with as default not-bootable.  The
 465 value of this field is irrelevant for Linux - when Linux runs it has
 466 been booted already - but it might play a role for certain boot
 467 loaders and for other operating systems.
 468 .RE
 469
 470 .B Named-fields format
 471 .RS
 472 This format is more readable, robust, extensible and allows to specify additional
 473 information (e.g., a UUID).  It is recommended to use this format to keep your scripts
 474 more readable.
 475 .RS
 476 .sp
 477 .RI [ "device \fB:" ] " name" [\fB= value "], ..."
 478 .sp
 479 .RE
 480 The
 481 .I device
 482 field is optional.  \fBsfdisk\fR extracts the partition number from the
 483 device name.  It allows to specify the partitions in random order.
 484 This functionality is mostly used by \fB\-\-dump\fR.
 485 Don't use it if you are not sure.
 486
 487 The
 488 .I value
 489 can be between quotation marks (e.g., name="This is partition name").
 490 The currently supported fields are:
 491 .RS
 492 .TP
 493 .BI start= number
 494 The first non-assigned sector aligned according to device I/O limits.  The default
 495 start offset for the first partition is 1 MiB. The offset may be followed by
 496 the multiplicative suffixes (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB) then
 497 the number is interpreted as offset in bytes.
 498 .TP
 499 .BI size= number
 500 Specify the partition size in sectors.  The number may be followed by the multiplicative
 501 suffixes (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB), then it's interpreted as size
 502 in bytes and the size is aligned according to device I/O limits.
 503 .TP
 504 .B bootable
 505 Mark the partition as bootable.
 506 .TP
 507 .BI attrs= string
 508 Partition attributes, usually GPT partition attribute bits.  See
 509 \fB\-\-part\-attrs\fR for more details about the GPT-bits string format.
 510 .TP
 511 .BI uuid= string
 512 GPT partition UUID.
 513 .TP
 514 .BI name= string
 515 GPT partition name.
 516 .TP
 517 .BI type= code
 518 A hexadecimal number (without 0x) for an MBR partition, a GUID for a GPT partition,
 519 or a shortcut as for unnamed-fields format.
 520 For backward compatibility the \fBId=\fR field has the same meaning.
 521 .RE
 522 .RE
 523
 524 .SH EMPTY DISK LABEL
 525 .B sfdisk
 526 does not create partition table without partitions by default. The lines with
 527 partitions are expected in the script by default. The empty partition table has
 528 to be explicitly requested by "label: <name>" script header line without any
 529 partitions lines. For example:
 530 .RS
 531 .sp
 532 .B "echo 'label: gpt' | sfdisk /dev/sdb"
 533 .sp
 534 .RE
 535 creates empty GPT partition table. Note that the \fB\-\-append\fR disables this feature.
 536
 537 .SH BACKING UP THE PARTITION TABLE
 538 It is recommended to save the layout of your devices.
 539 .B sfdisk
 540 supports two ways.
 541 .sp
 542 Use the \fB\-\-dump\fR option to save a description of the device layout
 543 to a text file.  The dump format is suitable for later \fBsfdisk\fR input.
 544 For example:
 545 .RS
 546 .sp
 547 .B "sfdisk \-\-dump /dev/sda > sda.dump"
 548 .sp
 549 .RE
 550 This can later be restored by:
 551 .RS
 552 .sp
 553 .B "sfdisk /dev/sda < sda.dump"
 554 .RE
 555
 556 If you want to do a full (binary) backup of all sectors where the
 557 partition table is stored,
 558 then use the \fB\-\-backup\fR option.  It writes the sectors to
 559 ~/sfdisk-<device>-<offset>.bak files.  The default name of the backup file can
 560 be changed with the \fB\-\-backup\-file\fR option.  The backup files
 561 contain only raw data from the \fIdevice\fR.
 562 Note that the same concept of backup files is used by
 563 .BR wipefs (8).
 564 For example:
 565 .RS
 566 .sp
 567 .B "sfdisk \-\-backup /dev/sda"
 568 .sp
 569 .RE
 570 The GPT header can later be restored by:
 571 .RS
 572 .sp
 573 .nf
 574 .B "dd  if=~/sfdisk-sda-0x00000200.bak  of=/dev/sda  \e"
 575 .B "  seek=$((0x00000200))  bs=1  conv=notrunc"
 576 .fi
 577 .sp
 578 .RE
 579 Note that \fBsfdisk\fR since version 2.26 no longer provides the \fB\-I\fR option to
 580 restore sectors.
 581 .BR dd (1)
 582 provides all necessary functionality.
 583
 584 .SH COLORS
 585 Implicit coloring can be disabled by an empty file \fI/etc/terminal-colors.d/sfdisk.disable\fR.
 586
 587 See
 588 .BR terminal-colors.d (5)
 589 for more details about colorization configuration. The logical color names
 590 supported by
 591 .B sfdisk
 592 are:
 593 .TP
 594 .B header
 595 The header of the output tables.
 596 .TP
 597 .B warn
 598 The warning messages.
 599 .TP
 600 .B welcome
 601 The welcome message.
 602
 603 .SH ENVIRONMENT
 604 .IP SFDISK_DEBUG=all
 605 enables sfdisk debug output.
 606 .IP LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all
 607 enables libfdisk debug output.
 608 .IP LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
 609 enables libblkid debug output.
 610 .IP LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
 611 enables libsmartcols debug output.
 612 .IP LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
 613 use exclusive BSD lock.  The mode is "1" or "0".  See \fB\-\-lock\fR for more details.
 614
 615 .SH NOTES
 616 Since version 2.26 \fBsfdisk\fR no longer provides the \fB\-R\fR or
 617 \fB\-\-re\-read\fR option to force the kernel to reread the partition table.
 618 Use \fBblockdev \-\-rereadpt\fR instead.
 619 .PP
 620 Since version 2.26 \fBsfdisk\fR does not provide the \fB\-\-DOS\fR, \fB\-\-IBM\fR, \fB\-\-DOS\-extended\fR,
 621 \fB\-\-unhide\fR, \fB\-\-show\-extended\fR, \fB\-\-cylinders\fR, \fB\-\-heads\fR, \fB\-\-sectors\fR,
 622 \fB\-\-inside\-outer\fR, \fB\-\-not\-inside\-outer\fR options.
 623
 624 .SH AUTHORS
 625 Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
 626 .PP
 627 The current sfdisk implementation is based on the original sfdisk
 628 from Andries E. Brouwer.
 629
 630 .SH SEE ALSO
 631 .BR fdisk (8),
 632 .BR cfdisk (8),
 633 .BR parted (8),
 634 .BR partprobe (8),
 635 .BR partx (8)
 636
 637 .SH AVAILABILITY
 638 The sfdisk command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
 639 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.