.\" cfdisk.8 -- man page for cfdisk
.\" Copyright 1994 Kevin E. Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu)
+.\" Copyright (C) 2014 Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
.\"
.\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
.\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
.\" permission notice identical to this one.
.\"
.\" " for hilit mode
-.TH CFDISK 8 "April 2013" "util-linux" "System Administration"
+.TH CFDISK 8 "March 2014" "util-linux" "System Administration"
.SH NAME
cfdisk \- display or manipulate disk partition table
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B cfdisk
-.RB [ \-agvz ]
-.RB [ \-c
-.IR cylinders ]
-.RB [ \-h
-.IR heads ]
-.RB [ \-s
-.IR sectors-per-track ]
-.RB [ \-P
-.IR format ]
+.RB [ options ]
.RI [ device ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B cfdisk
-is a curses-based program for partitioning any hard disk drive.
-Typical values of the
-.I device
-argument are:
-.sp
-.nf
-.RS
-/dev/hda [default]
-/dev/hdb
-/dev/sda [the fallback when /dev/hda does not exist]
-/dev/sdb
-/dev/sdc
-/dev/sdd
-.RE
-.fi
+is a curses-based program for partitioning any block device.
+The default device is /dev/sda.
Note that
.B cfdisk
-does not align partitions to block-device I/O limits. This functionality is
-provided by
+provides basic partitioning functionality by user friendly interface. If you
+need advanced features then use
.BR fdisk (8).
-In order to write the partition table,
-.B cfdisk
-needs something called the `geometry' of the disk: the number
-of `heads' and the number of `sectors per track'. Linux does not
-use any geometry, so if the disk will not be accessed by other
-operating systems, you can safely accept the defaults that
-.B cfdisk
-chooses for you. The geometry used by
-.B cfdisk
-is found as follows. First the partition table is examined,
-to see what geometry was used by the previous program that
-changed it. If the partition table is empty, or contains garbage,
-or does not point at a consistent geometry, the kernel is
-asked for advice. If nothing works, 255 heads and 63 sectors/track
-are assumed. The geometry can be overridden on the command line
-or by use of the `g' command. When partitioning an empty large modern
-disk, picking 255 heads and 63 sectors/track is always a good idea.
-There is no need to set the number of cylinders, since
-.B cfdisk
-knows the disk size.
-
-Next,
-.B cfdisk
-tries to read the current partition table from the disk drive. If it
-is unable to figure out the partition table, an error is displayed and
-the program will exit. This might also be caused by incorrect
-geometry information, and can be overridden on the command line.
-Another way around this problem is with the
-.B \-z
-option. This will ignore the partition table on the disk.
-
-The main display is composed of four sections, from top to bottom: the
-header, the partitions, the command line and a warning line. The
-header gives the program name and version number followed by information about
-the disk drive and its geometry. The partitions section always displays
-the current partition table. The command line is the place where
-commands and text are entered. The available commands are usually
-displayed in brackets. The warning line is usually empty except when
-there is important information to be displayed. The current partition
-is highlighted with reverse video (or with an arrow if the
-.B \-a
-option is given). All partition-specific commands apply to the
-current partition.
+Since version 2.25
+.BR cfdisk (8)
+supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk labels, but it does not provides any
+functionality in regards to CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing. CHS has
+never been important for Linux and this addressing concept does not make any
+sense for new devices.
+
+Since version 2.25
+.BR cfdisk (8)
+also does not provide a 'print' command. This functionality is provided by
+utils
+.BR partx (8)
+and
+.BR lsblk (8)
+in very comfortable and rich way.
+
+If you want to remove an old partition table from device than use
+.BR wipefs (8).
-The format of the partition table in the partitions section is, from
-left to right: Name, Flags, Partition Type, Filesystem Type and Size.
-The name is the device name of the partition. The flags can be
-.IR Boot ,
-which designates a bootable partition, or
-.IR NC ,
-which stands for "Not Compatible with DOS or OS/2". DOS, OS/2 and
-possibly other operating systems require the first sector of the first
-partition on the disk and all logical partitions to begin on the
-second head. This wastes the second through the last sector of the
-first track of the first head (the first sector is taken by the
-partition table itself).
-.B cfdisk
-allows you to recover these "lost" sectors with the maximize command
-.RB ( m ).
-.I Note:
-.BR fdisk (8)
-and some early versions of DOS create all partitions with the number
-of sectors already maximized. For more information, see the maximize
-command below. The partition type can be one of
-.IR Primary " or " Logical .
-For unallocated space on the drive, the partition type can also be
-.IR Pri/Log ,
-or empty (if the space is unusable). The filesystem type section
-displays the name of the filesystem used on the partition, if known.
-If it is unknown, then
-.I Unknown
-and the hex value of the filesystem type are displayed. A special
-case occurs when there are sections of the disk drive that cannot be
-used (because all of the primary partitions are used). When this is
-detected, the filesystem type is displayed as
-.IR Unusable .
-The size field displays the size of the partition in megabytes (by
-default). It can also display the size in sectors and cylinders (see
-the change units command below). If an asterisk
-.RB ( * )
-appears after the size, this means that the partition is not aligned
-on cylinder boundaries.
-
-.SH "DOS 6.x WARNING"
-The DOS 6.x FORMAT command looks for some information in the first
-sector of the data area of the partition, and treats this information
-as more reliable than the information in the partition table. DOS
-FORMAT expects DOS FDISK to clear the first 512 bytes of the data area
-of a partition whenever a size change occurs. DOS FORMAT will look at
-this extra information even if the /U flag is given -- we consider
-this a bug in DOS FORMAT and DOS FDISK.
-
-The bottom line is that if you use cfdisk or fdisk to change the size of a
-DOS partition table entry, then you must also use
-.B dd
-to zero the first 512 bytes of that partition before using DOS FORMAT to
-format the partition. For example, if you were using cfdisk to make a DOS
-partition table entry for /dev/hda1, then (after exiting fdisk or cfdisk
-and rebooting Linux so that the partition table information is valid) you
-would use the command "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1" to zero
-the first 512 bytes of the partition. Note:
-
-.B BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL
-if you use the
-.B dd
-command, since a small typo can make all of the data on your disk useless.
-
-For best results, you should always use an OS-specific partition-table
-program. For example, you should make DOS partitions with the DOS FDISK
-program and Linux partitions with the Linux fdisk or Linux cfdisk program.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
+Display help text and exit.
+.IP "\fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-color\fR[=\fIwhen\fR]"
+Colorize output, enabled by default. The optional argument \fIwhen\fP can be
+\fBauto\fR, \fBnever\fR or \fBalways\fR. If the \fIwhen\fR argument is omitted,
+then it defaults to \fBauto\fR.
+.IP "\fB-V, \-\-version"
+Display version information and exit.
.SH COMMANDS
.B cfdisk
.TP
.B b
Toggle bootable flag of the current partition. This allows you to
-select which primary partition is bootable on the drive.
+select which primary partition is bootable on the drive. This command does not
+have to available for all partition label types.
.TP
.B d
Delete the current partition. This will convert the current partition
surrounding the current partition. A partition already marked as free
space or marked as unusable cannot be deleted.
.TP
-.B g
-Change the disk geometry (cylinders, heads, or sectors-per-track).
-.B WARNING:
-This option should only be used by people who know what they are
-doing. A command-line option is also available to change the disk
-geometry. While at the change-disk-geometry command line, you can
-choose to change cylinders
-.RB ( c ),
-heads
-.RB ( h ),
-and sectors per track
-.RB ( s ).
-The default value will be printed at the prompt which you can accept
-by simply pressing the
-.I Enter
-key, or you can exit without changes by pressing the
-.I ESC
-key. If you want to change the default value, simply enter the
-desired value and press
-.IR Enter .
-The altered disk parameter values do not take effect until you return
-to the main menu (by pressing
-.IR Enter " or " ESC
-at the change-disk-geometry command line). If you change the geometry
-such that the disk appears larger, the extra sectors are added at the
-end of the disk as free space. If the disk appears smaller, the
-partitions that are beyond the new last sector are deleted and the
-last partition on the drive (or the free space at the end of the
-drive) is made to end at the new last sector.
-.TP
.B h
Print the help screen.
.TP
-.B m
-Maximize disk usage of the current partition. This command will
-recover the unused space between the partition table and the
-beginning of the partition, but at the cost of making the partition
-incompatible with DOS, OS/2 and possibly other operating systems.
-This option will toggle between maximal disk usage and DOS, OS/2,
-etc. compatible disk usage. The default when creating a partition is
-to create DOS, OS/2, etc. compatible partitions.
-.TP
.B n
-Create a new partition from free space. If the partition type is
-.IR Primary " or " Logical ,
-a partition of that type will be created, but if the partition type is
-.IR Pri/Log ,
-you will be prompted for the type you want to create. Be aware that
-(1) there are only four slots available for primary partitions and (2)
-since there can be only one extended partition, which contains all of
-the logical partitions, all the logical partitions must be contiguous
-(with no intervening primary partition).
+Create a new partition from free space.
.B cfdisk
next prompts you for the size of the partition you want to create.
-The default size, equal to the entire available free space at the current
-position, is displayed in megabytes. You can either press the
-.I Enter
-key to accept the default size, or enter a different size at the
-prompt.
-.B cfdisk
-accepts size entries in megabytes
-.RB ( M )
-[default], kilobytes
-.RB ( K ),
-cylinders
-.RB ( C )
-and sectors
-.RB ( S )
-by entering the number immediately followed by one of
-.BR M ", " K ", " C " or " S .
-If the partition fills the free space available, the partition is
-created and you are returned to the main command line. Otherwise, the
-partition can be created at the beginning or the end of the free
-space, and
-.B cfdisk
-will ask you to choose where to place the partition. After the
-partition is created,
-.B cfdisk
-automatically adjusts the other partitions' partition types if all of
-the primary partitions are used.
-.TP
-.B p
-Print the partition table to the screen or to a file. There are
-three different formats for the partition that you can choose from:
-.sp
-.RS
-.TP
-.B r
-Raw data format (exactly what would be written to disk)
-.TP
-.B s
-Partition table in sector-order format
-.TP
-.B t
-Partition table in raw format
-.RE
-
-.RS
-The
-.I raw data format
-will print the sectors that would be written to disk if a
-.BR w rite
-command is selected. First, the primary partition table is printed,
-followed by the partition tables associated with each logical
-partition. The data is printed in hex byte by byte with 16 bytes per
-line.
-
-The
-.I partition table in sector-order format
-will print the partition table ordered by sector number. The fields,
-from left to right, are the number of the partition, the partition
-type, the first sector, the last sector, the offset from the first
-sector of the partition to the start of the data, the length of the
-partition, the filesystem type (with the hex value in parenthesis),
-and the flags (with the hex value in parenthesis). In addition to the
-primary and logical partitions, free and unusable space is printed and
-the extended partition is printed before the first logical partition.
-
-If a partition does not start or end on a cylinder boundary or if the
-partition length is not divisible by the cylinder size, an asterisk
-.RB ( * )
-is printed after the non-aligned sector number/count. This usually
-indicates that a partition was created by an operating system that
-either does not align partitions to cylinder boundaries or that used
-different disk-geometry information. If you know the disk geometry of
-the other operating system, you could enter the geometry information
-with the change-geometry command
-.RB ( g ).
-
-For the first partition on the disk and for all logical partitions, if
-the offset from the beginning of the partition is not equal to the
-number of sectors per track (i.e., the data does not start on the
-first head), a number sign
-.RB ( # )
-is printed after the offset. For the remaining partitions, if the
-offset is not zero, a number sign will be printed after the offset.
-This corresponds to the
-.I NC
-flag in the partitions section of the main display.
+The default size is equal to the entire available free space at the current
+position.
-The
-.I partition table in raw format
-will print the partition table ordered by partition number. It will
-leave out all free and unusable space. The fields, from left to
-right, are the number of the partition, the flags (in hex), the
-starting head, sector and cylinder, the filesystem ID (in hex), the
-ending head, sector and cylinder, the starting sector in the partition
-and the number of sectors in the partition. The information in this
-table can be directly translated to the
-.IR "raw data format" .
-
-The partition table entries only have 10 bits available to represent
-the starting and ending cylinders. Thus, when the absolute starting
-(ending) sector number is on a cylinder greater than 1023, the maximal
-values for starting (ending) head, sector and cylinder are printed.
-This is the method used by OS/2, and thus fixes the problems
-associated with OS/2's fdisk rewriting the partition table when it is
-not in this format. Since Linux and OS/2 use absolute sector counts,
-the values in the starting and ending head, sector and cylinder are
-not used.
-.RE
+The size may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes KiB=1024,
+MiB=1024*1024, and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB"
+is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB")
.TP
.B q
Quit program. This will exit the program without writing any data to
disk.
.TP
.B t
-Change the filesystem type. By default, new partitions are created as
+Change the partition type. By default, new partitions are created as
.I Linux
-partitions, but since
-.B cfdisk
-can create partitions for other operating systems, change partition
-type allows you to enter the hex value of the filesystem you desire.
-A list of the know filesystem types is displayed. You can type in the
-filesystem type at the prompt or accept the default filesystem type
-.RI [ Linux ].
-.TP
-.B u
-Change the unit of the partition-size display. It will rotate through
-megabytes, sectors, and cylinders.
+partitions.
.TP
.B W
Write the partition table to disk (you must enter an uppercase W). Since
the write by entering `yes' or `no'. If you enter `yes',
.B cfdisk
will write the partition table to disk and then tell the kernel to re-read the
-partition table from the disk. The re-reading of the partition table does not
-work in some cases, for example for device-mapper devices. In
-such a case you need to inform the kernel about new partitions by
+partition table from the disk.
+
+The re-reading of the partition table does not work in some cases. In such a
+case you need to inform the kernel about new partitions by
.BR partprobe (8),
.BR kpartx (8)
or reboot the system.
partitions than can be displayed on a screen, you can display the next
(previous) set of partitions by moving down (up) at the last (first)
partition displayed on the screen.
-.TP
-.I CTRL-L
-Redraws the screen. In case something goes wrong and you cannot read
-anything, you can refresh the screen from the main command line.
-.TP
-.B ?
-Print the help screen.
-.RE
+.PP
All of the commands can be entered with either upper or lower case
letters (except for
.BR W rite).
.I ESC
key to return to the main command line.
-.SH OPTIONS
-.TP
-\fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-arrow\fR
-Use an arrow cursor instead of reverse video for highlighting the
-current partition.
-.TP
-\fB\-g\fR, \fB\-\-guess\fR
-Do not use the geometry given by the disk driver, but try to
-guess a geometry from the partition table.
-.TP
-\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
-Display version information and exit.
-.TP
-\fB\-z\fR, \fB\-\-zero\fR
-Start with a zeroed partition table. This option is useful when you
-want to repartition your entire disk.
-.I Note:
-this option does not zero the partition table on the disk; rather, it
-simply starts the program without reading the existing partition
-table.
-.TP
-\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-cylinders\fR \fIcylinders\fR
-.TP
-\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-heads\fR \fIheads\fR
-.TP
-\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-sectors\fR \fIsectors-per-track\fR
-Override the number of cylinders, heads and sectors per track read
-from the BIOS. If your BIOS or adapter does not supply this
-information or if it supplies incorrect information, use these options
-to set the disk geometry values.
-.TP
-\fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-print\fR \fBr\fR|\fBs\fR|\fBt\fR
-Print the partition table in the specified format(s).
-See the
-.BR p rint
-command (above) for more information on what the available formats show.
-
-.SH "EXIT STATUS"
-0: no errors; 1: invocation error; 2: I/O error;
-3: cannot get geometry; 4: bad partition table on disk.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR fdisk (8),
.BR sfdisk (8),
-.BR mkfs (8),
.BR parted (8),
.BR partprobe (8),
-.BR kpartx(8)
-.SH BUGS
-The current version does not support multiple disks.
+.BR partx(8)
.SH AUTHOR
-Kevin E. Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu)
+Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
+.PP
+The current cfdisk implemntation is based on the original cfdisk
+from Kevin E. Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu).
.SH AVAILABILITY
The cfdisk command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
projects / thirdparty / util-linux.git / commitdiff
