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GPART(8) System Manager's Manual GPART(8) NAME gpart -- control utility for the disk partitioning GEOM class SYNOPSIS To add support for the disk partitioning GEOM class, place one or more of the following lines in your kernel configuration file: options GEOM_PART_APM options GEOM_PART_BSD options GEOM_PART_GPT options GEOM_PART_MBR options GEOM_PART_PC98 options GEOM_PART_VTOC8 The GEOM_PART_APM option adds support for the Apple Partition Map (APM) found on Apple Macintosh computers. The GEOM_PART_BSD option adds sup- port for the traditional BSD disklabel. The GEOM_PART_GPT option adds support for the GUID Partition Table (GPT) found on Intel Itanium com- puters and Intel-based Macintosh computers. The GEOM_PART_MBR option adds support for the Master Boot Record (MBR) found on PCs and used on many removable media. The GEOM_PART_PC98 option adds support for the MBR variant as used on NEC PC-98 computers. The GEOM_PART_VTOC8 option adds support for Sun's SMI VTOC8 label as found on computers based on SPARC64 and UltraSPARC. Usage of the gpart(8) utility: gpart add -b start -s size -t type [-i index] [-l label] [-f flags] geom gpart bootcode [-b bootcode] [-p partcode -i index] [-f flags] geom gpart commit geom gpart create -s scheme [-n entries] [-f flags] provider gpart delete -i index [-f flags] geom gpart destroy [-f flags] geom gpart modify -i index [-l label] [-t type] [-f flags] geom gpart set -a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom gpart show [geom ...] gpart undo geom gpart unset -a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom DESCRIPTION The gpart utility is used to partition GEOM providers, normally disks. The first argument of which is the action to be taken: add Add a new partition to the partitioning scheme given by geom. The partition begins on the logical block address given by the -b start option. Its size is expressed in logical block num- bers and given by the -s size option. The type of the parti- tion is given by the -t type option. Partition types are dis- cussed in the section entitled "Partition Types". Addition options include: -i index The index in the partition table at which the new partition is to be placed. The index determines the name of the device special file used to rep- resent the partition. -l label The label attached to the partition. This option is only valid when used on partitioning schemes that support partition labels. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section entitled "Operational flags" below for a discus- sion about its use. bootcode Embed bootstrap code into the partitioning scheme's metadata on the geom (using -b bootcode) or write bootstrap code into a partition (using -p partcode and -i index). Not all parti- tioning schemes have embedded bootstrap code, so the -b bootcode option is scheme-specific in nature. For the GPT scheme, embedded bootstrap code is supported. The bootstrap code is embedded in the protective MBR rather than the GPT. The -b bootcode option specifies a file that contains the bootstrap code. The contents and size of the file are deter- mined by the partitioning scheme. For the MBR scheme, it's a 512 byte file of which the first 446 bytes are installed as bootstrap code. The -p partcode option specifies a file that contains the bootstrap code intended to be written to a parti- tion. For the VTOC8 scheme, it is a 8192 byte file of which the last 7680 bytes are installed as bootstrap code. The par- tition is specified by the -i index option. For the VTOC8 scheme, if the -i index option is omitted, the bootstrap code is written to all sufficiently large partitions. The size of the file must be smaller than the size of the partition. Addition options include: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "Operational flags" below for a discussion about its use. commit Commit any pending changes for geom geom. All actions are be- ing committed by default and will not result in pending changes. Actions can be modified with the -f flags option so that they are not being committed by default. As such, they become pending. Pending changes are reflected by the geom and the gpart utility, but they are not actually written to disk. The commit action will write any and all pending changes to disk. create Create a new partitioning scheme on a provider given by provider. The -s scheme option determines the scheme to use. The kernel needs to have support for a particular scheme be- fore that scheme can be used to partition a disk. Addition options include: -n entries The number of entries in the partition table. Every partitioning scheme has a minimum and a max- imum number of entries and this option allows ta- bles to be created with the number of entries that lies anywhere between the minimum and the maximum. Some schemes have a maximum equal to the minimum and some schemes have a maximum large enough to be considered unlimited. By default, partition ta- bles are created with the minimum number of en- tries. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "Operational flags" below for a discussion about its use. delete Delete a partition from geom geom and further identified by the -i index option. The partition cannot be actively used by the kernel. Addition options include: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "Operational flags" below for a discussion about its use. destroy Destroy the partitioning scheme as implemented by geom geom. Addition options include: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "Operational flags" below for a discussion about its use. modify Modify a partition from geom geom and further identified by the -i index option. Only the the type and/or label of the partition can be modified. To change the type of a partition, specify the new type with the -t type option. To change the label of a partition, specify the new label with the -l label option. Not all partitioning schemes support labels and it is invalid to try to change a partition label in such cases. Addition options include: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "Operational flags" below for a discussion about its use. set Set the named attribute on the partition entry. Addition options include: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "Operational flags" below for a discussion about its use. show Show the current partition information of the specified geoms or all geoms if none are specified. undo Revert any pending changes. This action is the opposite of the commit action and can be used to undo any changes that have not been committed. unset Clear the named attribute on the partition entry. Addition options include: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "Operational flags" below for a discussion about its use. PARTITION TYPES The gpart utility uses symbolic names for common partition types to avoid that the user needs to know what the partitioning scheme in ques- tion is and what the actual number or identification needs to be used for a particular type. the gpart utility also allows the user to spec- ify scheme-specific partition types for partition types that don't have symbol names. The symbolic names currently understood are: efi The system partition for computers that use the Extensi- ble Firmware Interface (EFI). In such cases, the GPT partitioning scheme is being used and the actual parti- tion type for the system partition can also be specified as "!c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93ab". freebsd A FreeBSD partition that uses the BSD disklabel to sub- divide the partition into file systems. This is a legacy partition type and should not be used for the APM or GPT schemes. The scheme-specific types are "!165" for MBR, "!FreeBSD" for APM, and "!516e7cb4-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT. freebsd-boot A FreeBSD partition dedicated to bootstrap code. The scheme-specific type is "!83bd6b9d-7f41-11dc- be0b-001560b84f0f" for GPT. freebsd-swap A FreeBSD partition dedicated to swap space. The scheme-specific types are "!FreeBSD-swap" for APM, "!516e7cb5-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT, and tag 0x0901 for VTOC8. freebsd-ufs A FreeBSD partition that contains a UFS or UFS2 file system. the scheme-specific types are "!FreeBSD-UFS" for APM, "!516e7cb6-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT, and tag 0x0902 for VTOC8. freebsd-vinum A FreeBSD partition that contains a Vinum volume. The scheme-specific types are "!FreeBSD-Vinum" for APM, "!516e7cb8-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT, and tag 0x0903 for VTOC8. freebsd-zfs A FreeBSD partition that contains a ZFS volume. The scheme-specific types are "!FreeBSD-ZFS" for APM, "!516e7cba-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT, and 0x0904 for VTOC8. mbr A partition that is sub-partitioned by a master boot record (MBR). This type is known as "!024dee41-33e7-11d3-9d69-0008c781f39f" by GPT. OPERATIONAL FLAGS Actions other than the commit and undo actions take an optional -f flags option. This option is used to specify action-specific opera- tional flags. By default, the gpart utility defines the 'C' flag so that the action is immediately committed. The user can specify -f x to have the action result in a pending change that can later, with other pending changes, be committed as a single compound change with the commit action or reverted with the undo action. EXIT STATUS Exit status is 0 on success, and 1 if the command fails. EXAMPLES Create GPT scheme on ad0. /sbin/gpart create -s GPT ad0 Embed GPT bootstrap code into protective MBR. /sbin/gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr ad0 Create a dedicated freebsd-boot partition that can boot FreeBSD from a freebsd-ufs partition, and install bootstrap code into it. This parti- tion must be larger than /boot/gptboot, or the GPT boot you are plan- ning to write. A size of 15 blocks (7680 bytes) would be sufficient for booting from UFS but lets use 128 blocks (64 KB) here in this exam- ple, in order to reserve some space for potential future need (e.g. from a ZFS partition). /sbin/gpart add -b 34 -s 128 -t freebsd-boot ad0 /sbin/gpart bootcode -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ad0 Create a 512MB-sized freebsd-ufs partition that would contain UFS where the system boots from. /sbin/gpart add -b 162 -s 1048576 -t freebsd-ufs ad0 Create VTOC8 scheme on da0. /sbin/gpart create -s VTOC8 da0 Create a 512MB-sized freebsd-ufs partition that would contain UFS where the system boots from. /sbin/gpart add -b 0 -s 1048576 -t freebsd-ufs da0 After having created all required partitions, embed bootstrap code into them. /sbin/gpart bootcode -p /boot/boot1 da0 SEE ALSO geom(4), geom(8), HISTORY The gpart utility appeared in FreeBSD 7.0. AUTHORS Marcel Moolenaar <marcel@FreeBSD.org> FreeBSD 8.1 June 3, 2010 GPART(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | PARTITION TYPES | OPERATIONAL FLAGS | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS
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