If the partition argument is omitted,
.B sfdisk
-will list the sizes of all disks, and the total:
+will list the sizes of all block devices, and the total:
.RS
.nf
.BI "sfdisk \-l " device
will list the partitions on the specified device. If the
.I device
-argument is omitted, the partitions on all hard disks are listed.
+argument is omitted, the partitions on all block devices are listed.
.RS
.nf
to read the specification for the desired partitioning of
.I device
from standard input, and then to change the partition tables
-on that disk. Thus it is possible to use
+on that block device. Thus it is possible to use
.B sfdisk
from a shell script. When
.B sfdisk
.LP
Then, if you discover that you did something stupid before anything
-else has been written to disk, it may be possible to recover
+else has been written to the block device, it may be possible to recover
the old situation with:
.RS
(This is not the same as saving the old partition table:
a readable version of the old partition table can be saved
using the \fB\-d\fR option. However, if you create logical partitions,
-the sectors describing them are located somewhere on disk,
+the sectors describing them are located somewhere on block device,
possibly on sectors that were not part of the partition table
before. Thus, the information the \fB\-O\fR option saves
is not a binary version of the output of \fB\-d\fR.)
List the size of a partition.
.TP
.BR \-g ", " \-\-show\-geometry
-List the kernel's idea of the geometry of the indicated disk(s).
+List the kernel's idea of the geometry of the indicated block device(s).
.TP
.BR \-G ", " \-\-show\-pt\-geometry
-List the geometry of the indicated disks guessed by looking at
+List the geometry of the indicated block devices guessed by looking at
the partition table.
.TP
.BR \-l ", " \-\-list
always let extended partitions start at cylinder boundaries if
DOS and Linux should interpret the partition table in the same way.
Of course one can only know where cylinder boundaries are when
-one knows what geometry DOS will use for this disk.)
+one knows what geometry DOS will use for this block device.)
.TP
.BR \-U ", " "\-\-unhide " \fIdevice\fR
Make various Microsoft partition types unhidden. For full list see types
.TP
.BR \-\-IBM ", " \-\-leave\-last
Certain IBM diagnostic programs assume that they can use the
-last cylinder on a disk for disk-testing purposes. If you think
+last cylinder on a device for disk-testing purposes. If you think
you might ever run such programs, use this option to tell
.B sfdisk
that it should not allocate the last cylinder.
Sometimes the last cylinder contains a bad sector table.
.TP
.B \-n
-Go through all the motions, but do not actually write to disk.
+Go through all the motions, but do not actually write to block device.
.TP
.BR \-R ", " \-\-re-read
Only execute the BLKRRPART ioctl (to make the kernel re-read
some file system, or say swapoff to some swap partition.
.TP
.B \-\-no\-reread
-When starting a repartitioning of a disk, \fBsfdisk\fR checks that this disk
+When starting a repartitioning of a block device, \fBsfdisk\fR checks that this device
is not mounted, or in use as a swap device, and refuses to continue
if it is. This option suppresses the test. (On the other hand, the \fB\-f\fR
option would force \fBsfdisk\fR to continue even when this test fails.)
.I file
(where hopefully
.I file
-resides on another disk, or on a floppy).
+resides on another block device, or on a floppy).
.TP
.BI \-I " file"
After destroying your filesystems with an unfortunate
Reserved option that does nothing currently.
.SH THEORY
-Block 0 of a disk (the Master Boot Record) contains among
+Block 0 of a block device (the Master Boot Record) contains among
other things four partition descriptors. The partitions
described here are called
.I primary
The two hsc fields indicate head, sector and cylinder of the
begin and the end of the partition. Since each hsc field only
takes 3 bytes, only 24 bits are available, which does not
-suffice for big disks (say > 8GB). In fact, due to the wasteful
+suffice for big block devices (say > 8GB). In fact, due to the wasteful
representation (that uses a byte for the number of heads, which
is typically 16), problems already start with 0.5GB.
However Linux does not use these fields, and problems can arise
.LP
The <c,h,s> parts can (and probably should) be omitted -
.B sfdisk
-computes them from <start> and <size> and the disk geometry
+computes them from <start> and <size> and the block device geometry
as given by the kernel or specified using the \-H, \-S, \-C flags.
.LP
Bootable is specified as [*|\-], with as default not-bootable.
The default value of start is the first nonassigned sector/cylinder/...
.LP
The default value of size is as much as possible (until next
-partition or end-of-disk).
+partition or end-of-device).
.LP
However, for the four partitions inside an extended partition,
the defaults are: Linux partition, Extended partition, Empty, Empty.
.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.
+command, since a small typo can make all of the data on your block device 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
a blank track or cylinder between the DRDOS partition and the
immediately following one, DRDOS would happily stamp all over the
start of the next partition. Mind you, as long as I keep a little
-free disk space after any DRDOS partition, I don't have any other
+free device space after any DRDOS partition, I don't have any other
problems with the two coexisting on the one drive.'
A. V. Le Blanc writes in README.efdisk: `Dr. DOS 5.0 and 6.0 has been
projects / thirdparty / util-linux.git / commitdiff
