1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
3 @setfilename parted.info
4 @settitle Parted User's Manual
10 This file documents the use of GNU Parted, a program for creating,
11 resizing, checking and copy partitions and file systems on them.
14 @ifnottex @c texi2pdf don't understand copying and insertcopying ???
15 @c modifications must also be done in the titlepage
17 Copyright @copyright{} 1999-2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
19 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
20 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
21 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
22 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
23 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
24 Free Documentation License''.
26 @c WTF does the info get the copying output and the plaintext output not ????
33 * parted: (parted). GNU partitioning software
37 @title GNU Parted User Manual
38 @subtitle GNU Parted, version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
39 @author Andrew Clausen @email{clausen@@gnu.org}
40 @author Richard M. Kreuter @email{kreuter@@anduril.rutgers.edu}
41 @author Leslie Patrick Polzer @email{polzer@@gnu.org}
45 @c @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
47 @c modifications must also be done in the copying block
48 Copyright @copyright{} 1999-2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
50 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
51 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
52 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
53 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
54 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
55 Free Documentation License''.
60 @top GNU Parted User Manual
62 @c WTF doesn't texi2html include the titlepage?
67 This document describes the use of GNU Parted, a program for creating,
68 destroying, resizing, checking and copying hard drive partitions, and
69 the file systems on them.
71 This document applies roughly to version @strong{@value{VERSION}} of GNU Parted.
73 The original version was written by Andrew Clausen in text format.
74 Richard M. Kreuter translated it into Texinfo format in 2002, to be heavily
75 edited by Leslie P. Polzer in 2006.
81 * Introduction:: Overview
82 * Using Parted:: Partitioning a Hard Drive
83 * Related information:: Further reading on related topics
84 * Copying This Manual:: How to make copies of this manual
85 * History:: This manual's history
87 * Index:: Index of referenced concepts
95 * Overview:: GNU Parted and prerequisite knowledge
96 * Software Required:: GNU Parted's software dependencies
97 * Supported Platforms:: Where you can use GNU Parted
98 * License:: What you may and may not do with GNU Parted
99 * Compiling:: How to build GNU Parted
100 * Static binaries:: How to get and use a static version of GNU
105 @section Overview of GNU Parted
106 @cindex description of parted
108 @cindex parted description
109 @cindex bugs, reporting
110 @cindex reporting bugs
111 @cindex contacting developers
113 GNU Parted is a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking
114 and copying partitions, and the file systems on them.
116 This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, for
117 reorganizing disk usage, for copying data between hard disks and for
118 ``disk imaging'' --- replicating an installation on another computer.
120 This documentation is written with the assumption that the reader
121 has some understanding of partitioning and file systems. If you want to
122 learn more about these, the upcoming GNU Storage Guide is recommended
125 GNU Parted was designed to minimize the chance of data loss. For
126 example, it was designed to avoid data loss during interruptions (like
127 power failure) and performs many safety checks. However, there could
128 be bugs in GNU Parted, so you should back up your important files before
130 Also note that reiserfs support relies on libreiserfs, which does not
131 fulfil the aforementioned requirement. The same holds for any external
132 tools like @kbd{ntfsresize}.
134 The GNU Parted homepage is @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/parted}. The
135 library and frontend themselves can be downloaded from
136 @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted}.
137 You can also find a listing of mailing lists, notes for contributing and
138 more useful information on the web site.
140 Please send bug reports to @email{bug-parted@@gnu.org}. When sending bug
141 reports, please include the version of GNU Parted.
142 Please include the output from these commands (for disk @file{/dev/hda}):
146 # @kbd{parted /dev/hda print unit s print unit chs print}
150 Feel free to ask for help on this list --- just check that your question
151 isn't answered here first. If you don't understand the documentation,
152 please tell us, so we can explain it better. General philosophy is:
153 if you need to ask for help, then something needs to be fixed so you
154 (and others) don't need to ask for help.
156 Also, we'd love to hear your ideas :-)
158 @node Software Required
159 @section Software Required for the use of Parted
160 @cindex software dependencies
161 @cindex required software
167 If you're installing or compiling Parted yourself, you'll need to
168 have some other programs installed. If you are compiling Parted,
169 you will need both the normal and devel packages of these programs
174 @item libuuid, part of the e2fsprogs package. If you don't have this,
177 @uref{http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/e2fsprogs.html}
179 If you want to compile Parted and e2fsprogs, note that you will need to
180 @kbd{make install} and @kbd{make install-libs} e2fsprogs.
182 @item GNU Readline (optional), available from
184 @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline}
186 If you are compiling Parted, and you don't have readline, you can
187 disable Parted's readline support with the @kbd{--disable-readline}
188 option for @command{configure}.
190 @item GNU gettext (or compatible software) for compilation, if
191 internationalisation support is desired.
193 @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext}
195 @item libreiserfs, if you want reiserfs support:
197 @uref{http://reiserfs.osdn.org.ua}
199 Note that parted will automatically detect libreiserfs at runtime, and enable
200 reiserfs support. libreiserfs is new, and hasn't been widely tested yet.
204 @node Supported Platforms
205 @section Platforms on which GNU Parted runs
206 @cindex supported platforms
207 @cindex platforms, supported
209 Hopefully, this list will grow a lot. If you do not have one of these
210 platforms, then you can use a rescue disk and a static binary of GNU Parted.
211 @xref{Static binaries}.
215 Linux versions 2.0 and up, on Alpha, x86 PCs, PC98, Macintosh PowerPC, Sun hardware.
220 GNU libc 2.1 or higher is required. You can probably use older versions
221 by using the @samp{--disable-nls} option. @xref{Compiling, Building GNU
222 Parted}. (Note: I think we have now dropped this requirement. TODO:
223 check if libc 2.0 works!)
226 @section Terms of distribution for GNU Parted
227 @cindex license terms
228 @cindex terms of distribution
232 GNU Parted is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License
233 Version 2. This should have been included with the Parted distribution,
234 in the COPYING file. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
235 Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
237 Libparted is considered part of GNU Parted. It is covered by the GNU
238 General Public License. It is NOT released under the GNU Lesser General
239 Public License (LGPL).
242 @section Building GNU Parted
243 @cindex compiling parted
244 @cindex building parted
246 If you want to compile GNU Parted, this is generally done with:
255 However, there are a few options for @command{configure}:
258 @item --without-readline
259 turns off use of readline. This is useful for making rescue disks,
260 etc., where few libraries are available.
262 @item --disable-debug
263 don't include assertions
265 @item --disable-dynamic-loading
266 disables dynamic loading of some libraries (only libreiserfs for now,
267 although we hope to expand this). Dynamic loading is useful because it
268 allows you to reuse libparted shared libraries even when you don't know
269 if some libraries will be available. It has a small overhead (mainly
270 linking with libdl), so it may be useful to disable it on bootdisks if
271 you don't need the flexibility.
274 disable all file system support
277 turns off native language support. This is useful for use with old
278 versions of glibc, or a trimmed down version of glibc suitable for
281 @item --disable-shared
282 turns off shared libraries. This may be necessary for use with old
283 versions of GNU libc, if you get a compile error about a ``spilled
284 register''. Also useful for boot/rescue disks.
286 @item --disable-Werror
287 ignore warning messages in compilation
289 @item --enable-discover-only
290 support only reading/probing (reduces size considerably)
292 @item --enable-mtrace
293 enable malloc() debugging
295 @item --enable-read-only
296 disable writing (for debugging)
300 @node Static binaries
301 @section Using static binaries of GNU Parted
302 @cindex static binary
303 @cindex unsupported platforms
304 @cindex resizing root device
306 @subsection Introduction
307 If you want to run GNU Parted on a machine without GNU/Linux installed, or you
308 want to resize a root or boot partition, you will need to use a boot disk.
310 Special boot disk images for GNU Parted used to be available, but with the
311 emergence of a plethora of rescue disks and Live CDs that all
312 include GNU Parted this is no longer necessary.
313 However, please note that these disks often ship with out-of-date
314 versions of Parted. To compensate for this a static binary
315 of the latest GNU Parted version is available, which you can use thus:
317 @c There should be instructions for CD and USB here.
319 @subsection Creating the Parted disk
321 @item Boot your system
323 @item Download @file{parted-static-VERSION.tgz} from @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/static}
324 @item Unpack the tarball, resulting in a file called ``parted.static".
326 @item Insert a floppy.
328 @item Do a low-level format on it (on GNU/Linux this can be achieved with
329 the tool ``fdformat" from the ``util-linux" package.
330 This is basically a sanity check because floppy disks often
333 @item Create a file system. Example:
336 $ @kbd{parted /dev/fd0 mklabel loop mkpartfs ext2 0 1.4}
339 @item Mount the floppy disk, e.g.,
342 $ @kbd{mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy}
345 @item Copy @file{parted.static} to the floppy, e.g.,
348 $ @kbd{cp parted.static /mnt/floppy}
351 @item Unmount the floppy, e.g.,
354 $ @kbd{umount /mnt/floppy}
358 @subsection Using the Parted disk
360 @item Choose a rescue disk that suits you.
362 @item Boot off your rescue disk. Mount the disk you copied Parted onto.
364 @item Run Parted. For example,
367 # @kbd{cd /mnt/floppy}
368 # @kbd{./parted-static}
373 @chapter Using Parted
377 * Partitioning:: Disk partitioning in context
378 * Running Parted:: Partitioning with Parted
379 * Invoking Parted:: Parted's invocation options and commands
380 * Command explanations:: Full explanation of parted's commands
384 @section Introduction to Partitioning
385 @cindex partitioning overview
387 Unfortunately, partitioning your disk is rather complicated. This is
388 because there are interactions between many different systems that need
389 to be taken into consideration.
391 This manual used to introduce the reader to these systems and their
392 working. This content has moved to the GNU Storage Guide.
395 @section Using GNU Parted
398 Parted has two modes: command line and interactive. Parted should
399 always be started with:
402 # @kbd{parted @var{device}}
405 @noindent where @var{device} is the hard disk device to edit. (If you're
406 lazy and omit the DEVICE argument, Parted will attempt to guess which
409 In command line mode, this is followed by one or more commands. For
413 # @kbd{parted /dev/sda resize 1 52Mb 104Mb mkfs 2 fat16}
416 @noindent Options (like @kbd{--help}) can only be specified on the
419 In interactive mode, commands are entered one at a time at a prompt, and
420 modify the disk immediately. For example:
423 (parted) @kbd{resize 1 52.0005Mb 104.5Mb}
424 (parted) @kbd{mkfs 2 fat16}
427 @noindent Unambiguous abbreviations are allowed. For example, you can
428 type ``p'' instead of ``print'', and ``resi'' instead of ``resize''.
429 Commands can be typed either in English, or your native language (if
430 your language has been translated). This may create ambiguities.
431 Commands are case-insensitive.
433 Numbers indicating partition locations can be whole numbers or decimals.
434 The suffix selects the unit, which may be one of those described in
435 @ref{unit}, except CHS and compact. If no suffix is given, then the default
436 unit is assumed. Negative numbers count back from the end of the disk,
437 with ``-1s'' indicating the end of the disk. Parted will compute sensible
438 ranges for the locations you specify (e.g. a range of +/- 500 MB when you
439 specify the location in ``G''). Use the sector unit ``s'' to specify exact
442 If you don't give a parameter to a command, Parted will prompt you for it.
446 (parted) @kbd{resize 1}
451 Parted will always warn you before doing something that is potentially
452 dangerous, unless the command is one of those that is inherently
453 dangerous (viz., rm, mklabel and mkfs). For example, if you attempt to
454 shrink a partition ``too much'' (i.e., by more than the free space
455 available), Parted will automatically reduce the shrinkage so that the
456 partition is the smallest it can be without losing data. If this size is
457 significantly different from the size requested, Parted will warn you.
458 Since many partitioning systems have complicated constraints, Parted will
459 usually do something slightly different to what you asked. (For example,
460 create a partition starting at 10.352Mb, not 10.4Mb)
461 If the calculated values differ too much, Parted will ask you for
464 Currently ext3 filesystem functionality does not work. To manage ext3 type
465 filesystems use tools like resize2fs or mke2fs. Note that the currently
466 supported ext2 filesystem will be deprecated once ext3 support is finalized.
467 Further note that ext3 support will have limited functionality that is yet
468 to be defined. Use tools like resize2fs (8) and mke2fs (8) to manage these
469 types of filesystems.
472 @node Invoking Parted
473 @section Command Line Options
474 @cindex options at invocation
475 @cindex commands, overview
476 @cindex invocation options
478 When invoked from the command line, Parted supports the following syntax:
481 # @kbd{parted [@var{option}] @var{device} [@var{command} [@var{argument}]]}
484 Available options and commands follow. For detailed explanations of the
485 use of Parted commands, see @ref{Command explanations}. Options begin
486 with a hyphen, commands do not:
493 display a help message
497 never prompt the user
504 @node Command explanations
505 @section Parted Session Commands
506 @cindex command syntax
507 @cindex detailed command listing
508 @cindex commands, detailed listing
510 GNU Parted provides the following commands:
534 @cindex check, command description
535 @cindex command description, check
537 @deffn Command check @var{number}
539 Checks if the file system on partition @var{number} has
545 (parted) @kbd{check 1}
548 Check the file system on partition 1.
553 @cindex cp, command description
554 @cindex command description, cp
556 @deffn Command cp [@var{from-device}] @var{from-number} @var{to-number}
558 Copies the file system on the partition @var{from-number} to partition
559 @var{to-number}, deleting the original contents of the destination
562 An optional device parameter, @var{from-device} can be given, which
563 specifies which device the source partition is on.
565 Supported file systems:
568 (provided the destination partition is larger than the source partition)
572 (equivalent to mkswap on destination partition)
573 @item reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
580 (parted) @kbd{cp /dev/hdb 2 3}
583 @c FIXME: this doesn't format right.
584 Copy partition 2 of @file{/dev/hdb} (i.e., @file{/dev/hdb2}) to partition
585 on 3, on the device Parted was loaded with, destroying the original
586 contents of partition 3.
591 @cindex help, command description
592 @cindex command description, help
594 @deffn Command help [@var{command}]
596 Prints general help, or help on @var{command}.
601 (parted) @kbd{help resize}
604 Print help for the resize command.
609 @cindex mklabel, command description
610 @cindex command description, mkindex
612 @deffn Command mklabel @var{label-type}
614 Creates a new disk label, of type @var{label-type}. The new disk label
615 will have no partitions. This command (normally) won't technically
616 destroy your data, but it will make it basically unusable,
617 and you will need to use the rescue command (@pxref{Related information})
618 to recover any partitions.
619 Parted works on all partition tables. @footnote{Everyone seems to
620 have a different word for ``disk label'' --- these are all the same
621 thing: partition table, partition map.}
623 @var{label-type} must be one of these supported disk labels:
626 @item loop (raw disk access)
637 (parted) @kbd{mklabel msdos}
640 Create an MS-DOS disk label. This is still the most common disk label for
646 @cindex mkfs, command description
647 @cindex command description, mkfs
649 @deffn Command mkfs @var{number} @var{fs-type}
651 Makes a file system @var{fs-type} on partition @var{number}, destroying
652 all data that resides on that partition.
654 Supported file systems:
659 @item reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
665 (parted) @kbd{mkfs 2 fat32}
668 Make a @var{fat32} file system on partition 2.
673 @cindex mkpart, command description
674 @cindex command description, mkpart
676 @deffn Command mkpart [@var{part-type} @var{fs-type} @var{name}] @var{start} @var{end}
678 Creates a new partition, @emph{without} creating a new file system on
679 that partition. This is useful for creating partitions for file systems
680 (or LVM, etc.) that Parted doesn't support. You may specify a file
681 system type, to set the appropriate partition code in the partition
682 table for the new partition. @var{fs-type} is required for data
683 partitions (i.e., non-extended partitions). @var{start} and @var{end}
684 are the offset from the beginning of the disk, that is, the ``distance''
685 from the start of the disk.
687 @var{part-type} is one of @samp{primary}, @samp{extended} or @samp{logical},
688 and may be specified only with @samp{msdos} or @samp{dvh} partition tables.
689 A @var{name} must be specified for a @samp{gpt} partition table.
690 Neither @var{part-type} nor @var{name} may be used with a @samp{sun}
693 @var{fs-type} must be one of these supported file systems:
697 @item hfs, hfs+, hfsx
707 (parted) @kbd{mkpart logical 0.0 692.1}
710 Create a logical partition that will contain an ext2 file system. The
711 partition will start at the beginning of the disk, and end 692.1
712 megabytes into the disk.
718 @cindex mkpartfs, command description
719 @cindex command description, mkpartfs
721 @deffn Command mkpartfs @var{part-type} @var{fs-type} @var{start} @var{end}
723 Creates a new partition of type @var{part-type} with a new file system
724 of type @var{fs-type} on it. The new partition will start @var{start}
725 megabytes, and end @var{end} megabytes from the beginning of the disk.
726 Do not use this command to recover a deleted partition (use mkpart
727 instead). Using this command is discouraged. Instead use mkpart
728 to create an empty partition, and then use external tools like mke2fs (8)
729 to create the filesystem.
731 @var{part-type} is one of: primary, extended, logical. Extended and logical
732 are only used for msdos and dvh disk labels.
734 @var{fs-type} must be one of these supported file systems:
739 @item reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
745 (parted) @kbd{mkpartfs logical ext2 440 670}
748 Make a logical partition and write an ext2 file system, starting 440
749 megabytes and ending 670 megabytes from the beginning of the disk.
754 @cindex move, command description
755 @cindex command description, move
757 @deffn Command move @var{number} @var{start} @var{end}
759 Moves partition on the disk, by moving its beginning to @var{start}.
760 You can't move a partition so that the old and new positions overlap.
761 That is, you can only move partitions into free space. If you want
762 to resize a partition in-place, use @command{resize}.
764 Move never changes the partition number.
766 Supported file systems:
769 (provided the destination partition is larger than the source partition)
775 @item reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
781 (parted) move 2 150M 500M
784 Move the partition numbered 2 so that it begins 150 megabytes from the start of
785 the disk, and ends 500 megabytes from the start.
791 @cindex name, command description
792 @cindex command description, name
794 @deffn Command name @var{number} @var{name}
796 Sets the name for the partition @var{number} (GPT, Mac, MIPS and PC98 only).
797 The name can be placed in quotes.
802 (parted) @kbd{name 2 'Secret Documents'}
805 Set the name of partition 2 to `Secret Documents'.
810 @cindex print, command description
811 @cindex command description, print
813 @deffn Command print [@var{number}]
815 Displays the partition table on the device parted is editing, or
816 detailed information about a particular partition.
823 Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-2445.679 megabytes
824 Disk label type: msdos
825 Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
826 1 0.031 945.000 primary fat32 boot, lba
827 2 945.000 2358.562 primary ext2
828 3 2358.562 2445.187 primary linux-swap
829 (parted) @kbd{print 1}
834 Minimum size: 84.361Mb (0%)
835 Maximum size: 2445.679Mb (100%)
842 @cindex quit, command description
843 @cindex command description, quit
849 @c RMK: generality: the following will apply to any operating system on
850 @c which parted will run, not only Linux-based ones.
851 @c clausen: yeah... just that the way hurd and linux work are totally
852 @c different, and it's actually very hard to speak in general. Need to
854 It is only after Parted exits that the Linux kernel knows about the changes
855 Parted has made to the disks. However, the changes caused by typing your
856 commands will @emph{probably} be made to the disk immediately after typing a
857 command. However, the operating system's cache and the disk's hardware cache
863 @cindex rescue, command description
864 @cindex command description, rescue
866 @deffn Command rescue @var{start} @var{end}
867 Rescue a lost partition that used to be located approximately between
868 @var{start} and @var{end}. If such a partition is found, Parted will
869 ask you if you want to create a partition for it. This is useful if you
870 accidently deleted a partition with parted's rm command, for example.
877 Disk geometry for /dev/hdc: 0.000-8063.507 megabytes
878 Disk label type: msdos
879 Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
880 1 0.031 8056.032 primary ext3
886 Disk geometry for /dev/hdc: 0.000-8063.507 megabytes
887 Disk label type: msdos
888 Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
892 OUCH! We deleted our ext3 partition!!! Parted comes to the rescue...
895 (parted) @kbd{rescue}
898 Information: A ext3 primary partition was found at 0.031MB ->
899 8056.030MB. Do you want to add it to the partition table?
900 Yes/No/Cancel? @kbd{y}
903 Disk geometry for /dev/hdc: 0.000-8063.507 megabytes
904 Disk label type: msdos
905 Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
906 1 0.031 8056.032 primary ext3
916 @cindex resize, command description
917 @cindex command description, resize
919 @deffn Command resize @var{number} @var{start} @var{end}
921 Resizes the partition with number @var{number}. The partition will start
922 @var{start} from the beginning of the disk, and end @var{end} from the
923 beginning of the disk. resize never changes the partition number. Extended
924 partitions can be resized only so long as the new extended partition
925 completely contains all logical partitions.
927 Note that Parted can manipulate partitions whether or not they have been
928 defragmented, so you do not need to defragment the disk before
931 Supported file systems:
933 @item ext2 -- restriction: the new @var{start} must be the same as
936 @item hfs, hfs+, hfsx -- restriction: the new @var{start} must be the same as
937 the old @var{start} and the new @var{end} must be smaller than the old
940 @item reiserfs (if libreiserfs is installed)
946 (parted) @kbd{resize 3 200M 850M}
949 Resize partition 3, so that it begins 200 megabytes and ends 850
950 megabytes from the beginning of the disk.
955 @cindex rm, command description
956 @cindex command description, rm
959 @deffn Command rm @var{number}
961 Removes the partition with number @var{number}. If you accidently delete
962 a partition with this command, use mkpart (@emph{not} mkpartfs) to
963 recover it. Also, you can use the gpart program (@pxref{Related information})
964 to recover damaged disk labels.
966 Note for msdos disk labels: if you delete a logical partition, all
967 logical partitions with a larger partition number will be renumbered. For
968 example, if you delete a logical partition with a partition number of 6,
969 then logical partitions that were number 7, 8 and 9 would be renumbered
970 to 6, 7 and 8 respectively. This means, for example, that you have to
971 update @file{/etc/fstab} on GNU/Linux systems.
984 @cindex select, command description
985 @cindex command description, select
987 @deffn Command select @var{device}
989 Selects the device, @var{device}, for Parted to edit. The device can
990 be a Linux hard disk device, a partition, a software RAID device or
996 (parted) @kbd{select /dev/hdb}
999 Select @file{/dev/hdb} (the slave device on the first ide controller on
1000 Linux) as the device to edit.
1005 @cindex set, command description
1006 @cindex command description, set
1008 @deffn Command set @var{number} @var{flag} @var{state}
1010 Changes a flag on the partition with number @var{number}. A flag can be
1011 either ``on'' or ``off''. Some or all of these flags will be available,
1012 depending on what disk label you are using:
1017 (GPT) - Enable this to record that the selected partition is a
1018 GRUB BIOS partition.
1021 (Mac, MS-DOS, PC98) - should be enabled if you want to boot off the
1022 partition. The semantics vary between disk labels. For MS-DOS disk
1023 labels, only one partition can be bootable. If you are installing LILO
1024 on a partition that partition must be bootable.
1025 For PC98 disk labels, all ext2 partitions must be bootable (this is
1026 enforced by Parted).
1029 (MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled to tell MS DOS, MS Windows 9x and
1030 MS Windows ME based operating systems to use Linear (LBA) mode.
1033 (Mac) - this flag should be enabled if the partition is the root device
1034 to be used by Linux.
1037 (Mac) - this flag should be enabled if the partition is the swap
1038 device to be used by Linux.
1041 (MS-DOS, PC98) - this flag can be enabled to hide partitions from
1042 Microsoft operating systems.
1045 (MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled to tell linux the partition is a
1046 software RAID partition.
1049 (MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled to tell linux the partition is a
1053 (MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled so that the partition can be used
1054 by the Linux/PA-RISC boot loader, palo.
1057 (MS-DOS) - this flag can be enabled so that the partition can be used
1058 as a PReP boot partition on PowerPC PReP or IBM RS6K/CHRP hardware.
1062 The print command displays all enabled flags for each partition.
1067 (parted) @kbd{set 1 boot on}
1070 Set the @samp{boot} flag on partition 1.
1075 @cindex unit, command description
1076 @cindex command description, unit
1078 @deffn Command unit @var{unit}
1080 Selects the current default unit that Parted will use to display
1081 locations and capacities on the disk and to interpret those given
1082 by the user if they are not suffixed by an @var{unit}.
1084 @var{unit} may be one of:
1088 sector (n bytes depending on the sector size, often 512)
1094 kilobyte (1000 bytes)
1097 megabyte (1000000 bytes)
1100 gigabyte (1000000000 bytes)
1103 terabyte (1000000000000 bytes)
1106 percentage of the device (between 0 and 100)
1109 cylinders (related to the BIOS CHS geometry)
1112 cylinders, heads, sectors addressing (related to the BIOS CHS geometry)
1115 This is a special unit that defaults to megabytes for input, and picks a
1116 unit that gives a compact human readable representation for output.
1119 The default unit apply only for the output and when no unit is
1120 specified after an input number. Input numbers can be followed by
1121 an unit (without any space or other character between them), in
1122 which case this unit apply instead of the default unit for this
1123 particular number, but CHS and cylinder units are not supported as
1124 a suffix. If no suffix is given, then the default unit is assumed.
1125 Parted will compute sensible ranges for the locations you specify
1126 (e.g. a range of +/- 500 MB when you specify the location in ``G'')
1127 and will select the nearest location in this range from the one you
1128 wrote that satisfies constraints from both the operation, the
1129 filesystem being worked on, the disk label, other partitions and so
1130 on. Use the sector unit ``s'' to specify exact locations (if they
1131 do not satisfy all onstraints, Parted will ask you for the nearest
1132 solution). Note that negative numbers count back from the end of
1133 the disk, with ``-1s'' pointing to the end of the disk.
1139 (parted) unit compact
1141 Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0kB - 123GB
1142 Disk label type: msdos
1143 Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1144 1 32kB 1078MB 1077MB primary reiserfs boot
1145 2 1078MB 2155MB 1078MB primary linux-swap
1146 3 2155MB 123GB 121GB extended
1147 5 2155MB 7452MB 5297MB logical reiserfs
1150 (parted) unit chs print
1151 Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0,0,0 - 14946,225,62
1152 BIOS cylinder,head,sector geometry: 14946,255,63. Each cylinder
1154 Disk label type: msdos
1155 Number Start End Type File system Flags
1156 1 0,1,0 130,254,62 primary reiserfs boot
1157 2 131,0,0 261,254,62 primary linux-swap
1158 3 262,0,0 14945,254,62 extended
1159 5 262,2,0 905,254,62 logical reiserfs
1162 (parted) unit mb print
1163 Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0MB - 122942MB
1164 Disk label type: msdos
1165 Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1166 1 0MB 1078MB 1077MB primary reiserfs boot
1167 2 1078MB 2155MB 1078MB primary linux-swap
1168 3 2155MB 122935MB 120780MB extended
1169 5 2155MB 7452MB 5297MB logical reiserfs
1175 @node Related information
1176 @chapter Related information
1177 @cindex further reading
1178 @cindex related documentation
1180 If you want to find out more information, please see the GNU Parted web site.
1182 These files in the Parted distribution contain further information:
1186 @item @kbd{ABOUT-NLS} - information about using Native Language Support, and the Free Translation Project.
1188 @item @kbd{AUTHORS} - who wrote what.
1190 @item @kbd{ChangeLog} - record of changes made to Parted.
1192 @item @kbd{COPYING} - the GNU General Public License, the terms under which GNU Parted may be distributed.
1194 @item @kbd{COPYING.DOC} - the GNU Free Documentation Licence, the term under
1195 which Parted's documentation may be distributed.
1197 @item @kbd{INSTALL} --- how to compile and install Parted, and most other free
1202 @node Copying This Manual
1203 @appendix Copying This Manual
1206 * GNU Free Documentation License:: License for copying this manual
1212 @appendix This manual's history
1213 @cindex history of this manual
1215 This manual was based on the file @kbd{USER} included in GNU Parted version
1216 1.4.22 source distribution. The GNU Parted source distribution is
1217 available at @uref{ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted}.
1219 Initial Texinfo formatting by Richard M. Kreuter, 2002.
1221 Maintainance by Andrew Clausen from 2002 to 2005 and by Leslie P. Polzer
1222 from July 2005 onwards.
1224 This manual is distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License,
1225 version 1.1 or later, at your discretion, any later version published
1226 by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no
1227 Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. @xref{Copying
1228 This Manual}, for details.
1230 @c FIXME: why doesn't this @ifnotplaintext work?!
1235 @c @end ifnotplaintext
1242 Notes on possible (unimplemented!) modifications:
1244 The output samples from parted's print command, fdisk's p command, etc.,
1245 might be made into tables (multi-column tables) to ensure spiffy formatting.
1247 I'd like to find a way to make *entry: see *synonym type references in
1248 the index, so, e.g., to refer people looking for Apple to Macintosh, and
1249 PowerPC to Macintosh, etc. Probably texinfo does this already; I dunno.
1254 - add "version" command.
1255 - read through and correct.