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GPART(8) System Manager's Manual GPART(8) NAME gpart -- control utility for the disk partitioning GEOM class SYNOPSIS gpart add -t type [-a alignment] [-b start] [-s size] [-i index] [-l label] [-f flags] geom gpart backup geom gpart bootcode [-N] [-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] [-f flags] geom gpart modify -i index [-l label] [-t type] [-f flags] geom gpart recover [-f flags] geom gpart resize -i index [-a alignment] [-s size] [-f flags] geom gpart restore [-lF] [-f flags] provider [...] gpart set -a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom gpart [--libxo] show [-l | -r] [-p] [geom ...] gpart undo geom gpart unset -a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom gpart list gpart status gpart load gpart unload DESCRIPTION The gpart utility is used to partition GEOM providers, normally disks. The first argument is the action to be taken: add Add a new partition to the partitioning scheme given by geom. The partition type must be specified with -t type. The parti- tion's location, size, and other attributes will be calculated automatically if the corresponding options are not specified. The add command accepts these options: -a alignment If specified, then the gpart utility tries to align start offset and partition size to be multiple of alignment value. -b start The logical block address where the partition will begin. A single-character suffix (k, m, g, etc.) is allowed to specify binary byte sizes. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -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 repre- sent the partition. -l label The label attached to the partition. This option is only valid when used on partitioning schemes that support partition labels. -s size Create a partition of size size. A single-charac- ter suffix (k, m, g, etc.) is allowed to specify binary byte sizes. -t type Create a partition of type type. Partition types are discussed below in the section entitled "PARTITION TYPES". backup Dump a partition table to standard output in a special format used by the restore action. bootcode Embed bootstrap code into the partitioning scheme's metadata on the geom (using -b bootcode) or write bootstrap code into a par- tition (using -p partcode and -i index). The bootcode command accepts these options: -N Do not preserve the Volume Serial Number for MBR. MBR bootcode contains Volume Serial Number by de- fault, and gpart tries to preserve it when installing new bootstrap code. This option skips preservation to help with some versions of boot0cfg(8) that do not support Volume Serial Number. -b bootcode Embed bootstrap code from the file bootcode into the partitioning scheme's metadata for geom. Not all partitioning schemes have embedded bootstrap code, so the -b bootcode option is scheme-specific in nature (see the section entitled "BOOTSTRAPPING" below). The bootcode file must match the partitioning scheme's requirements for file content and size. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -i index Specify the target partition for -p partcode. -p partcode Write the bootstrap code from the file partcode into the geom partition specified by -i index. The size of the file must be smaller than the size of the par- tition. commit Commit any pending changes for geom geom. All actions are com- mitted by default and will not result in pending changes. Ac- tions can be modified with the -f flags option so that they are not committed, but 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 all pending changes to disk. create Create a new partitioning scheme on a provider given by provider. The scheme to use must be specified with the -s scheme option. The create command accepts these options: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -n entries The number of entries in the partition table. Every partitioning scheme has a minimum and maximum number of entries. This option allows tables to be created with a number of entries that is within the limits. Some schemes have a maximum equal to the minimum and some schemes have a maximum large enough to be con- sidered unlimited. By default, partition tables are created with the minimum number of entries. -s scheme Specify the partitioning scheme to use. The kernel must have support for a particular scheme before that scheme can be used to partition a disk. delete Delete a partition from geom geom and further identified by the -i index option. The partition cannot be actively used by the kernel. The delete command accepts these options: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -i index Specifies the index of the partition to be deleted. destroy Destroy the partitioning scheme as implemented by geom geom. The destroy command accepts these options: -F Forced destroying of the partition table even if it is not empty. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "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 type and/or label of the partition can be modified. Not all partitioning schemes support labels and it is invalid to try to change a partition label in such cases. The modify command accepts these options: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -i index Specifies the index of the partition to be modified. -l label Change the partition label to label. -t type Change the partition type to type. recover Recover a corrupt partition's scheme metadata on the geom geom. See the section entitled "RECOVERING" below for the additional information. The recover command accepts these options: -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. resize Resize a partition from geom geom and further identified by the -i index option. If the new size is not specified it is automat- ically calculated to be the maximum available from geom. The resize command accepts these options: -a alignment If specified, then the gpart utility tries to align partition size to be a multiple of the alignment value. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section en- titled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -i index Specifies the index of the partition to be resized. -s size Specifies the new size of the partition, in logical blocks, or binary byte sizes if a single-character suffix (k, m, g, etc.) is provided. restore Restore the partition table from a backup previously created by the backup action and read from standard input. Only the parti- tion table is restored. This action does not affect the content of partitions. After restoring the partition table and writing bootcode if needed, user data must be restored from backup. The restore command accepts these options: -F Destroy partition table on the given provider before doing restore. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -l Restore partition labels for partitioning schemes that support them. set Set the named attribute on the partition entry. See the section entitled "ATTRIBUTES" below for a list of available attributes. The set command accepts these options: -a attrib Specifies the attribute to set. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -i index Specifies the index of the partition on which the at- tribute will be set. show Show current partition information for the specified geoms, or all geoms if none are specified. The default output includes the logical starting block of each partition, the partition size in blocks, the partition index number, the partition type, and a hu- man readable partition size. Block sizes and locations are based on the device's Sectorsize as shown by gpart list. The show command accepts these options: -l For partitioning schemes that support partition la- bels, print them instead of partition type. -p Show provider names instead of partition indexes. -r Show raw partition type instead of symbolic name. undo Revert any pending changes for geom geom. This action is the op- posite 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. See the sec- tion entitled "ATTRIBUTES" below for a list of available attrib- utes. The unset command accepts these options: -a attrib Specifies the attribute to clear. -f flags Additional operational flags. See the section enti- tled "OPERATIONAL FLAGS" below for a discussion about its use. -i index Specifies the index of the partition on which the at- tribute will be cleared. list See geom(8). status See geom(8). load See geom(8). unload See geom(8). --libxo Generate output via libxo(3) in a selection of different human and machine readable formats. See xo_options(7) for details on command line arguments. PARTITIONING SCHEMES Several partitioning schemes are supported by the gpart utility: APM Apple Partition Map, used by PowerPC(R) Macintosh(R) computers. Re- quires the GEOM_PART_APM kernel option. BSD Traditional BSD disklabel(8), usually used to subdivide MBR parti- tions. (This scheme can also be used as the sole partitioning method, without an MBR. Partition editing tools from other operat- ing systems often do not understand the bare disklabel partition layout, so this is sometimes called "dangerously dedicated".) Re- quires the GEOM_PART_BSD kernel option. BSD64 64-bit implementation of BSD disklabel used in DragonFly to subdi- vide MBR or GPT partitions. Requires the GEOM_PART_BSD64 kernel op- tion. LDM The Logical Disk Manager is an implementation of volume manager for Microsoft Windows NT. Requires the GEOM_PART_LDM kernel option. GPT GUID Partition Table is used on Intel-based Macintosh computers and gradually replacing MBR on most PCs and other systems. Requires the GEOM_PART_GPT kernel option. MBR Master Boot Record is used on PCs and removable media. Requires the GEOM_PART_MBR kernel option. The GEOM_PART_EBR option adds support for the Extended Boot Record (EBR), which is used to define a logi- cal partition. The GEOM_PART_EBR_COMPAT option enables backward compatibility for partition names in the EBR scheme. It also pre- vents any type of actions on such partitions. See glabel(8) for additional information on labelization of devices and partitions. PARTITION TYPES Partition types are identified on disk by particular strings or magic val- ues. The gpart utility uses symbolic names for common partition types so the user does not need to know these values or other details of the parti- tioning scheme in question. The gpart utility also allows the user to specify scheme-specific partition types for partition types that do not have symbolic names. Symbolic names currently understood and used by FreeBSD are: apple-boot The system partition dedicated to storing boot load- ers on some Apple systems. The scheme-specific types are "!171" for MBR, "!Apple_Bootstrap" for APM, and "!426f6f74-0000-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. bios-boot The system partition dedicated to second stage of the boot loader program. Usually it is used by the GRUB 2 loader for GPT partitioning schemes. The scheme-specific type is "!21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649". efi The system partition for computers that use the Ex- tensible Firmware Interface (EFI). The scheme-spe- cific types are "!239" for MBR, and "!c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b" for GPT. freebsd A FreeBSD partition subdivided into filesystems with a BSD disklabel. 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, and "!516e7cb5-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT. freebsd-ufs A FreeBSD partition that contains a UFS or UFS2 filesystem. The scheme-specific types are "!FreeBSD-UFS" for APM, and "!516e7cb6-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT. freebsd-zfs A FreeBSD partition that contains a ZFS volume. The scheme-specific types are "!FreeBSD-ZFS" for APM, and "!516e7cba-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b" for GPT. Other symbolic names that can be used with the gpart utility are: apple-apfs An Apple macOS partition used for the Apple file system, APFS. apple-core-storage An Apple Mac OS X partition used by logical volume manager known as Core Storage. The scheme-specific type is "!53746f72-6167-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. apple-hfs An Apple Mac OS X partition that contains a HFS or HFS+ filesystem. The scheme-specific types are "!175" for MBR, "!Apple_HFS" for APM and "!48465300-0000-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. apple-label An Apple Mac OS X partition dedicated to partition metadata that descibes disk device. The scheme-spe- cific type is "!4c616265-6c00-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. apple-raid An Apple Mac OS X partition used in a software RAID configuration. The scheme-specific type is "!52414944-0000-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. apple-raid-offline An Apple Mac OS X partition used in a software RAID configuration. The scheme-specific type is "!52414944-5f4f-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. apple-tv-recovery An Apple Mac OS X partition used by Apple TV. The scheme-specific type is "!5265636f-7665-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. apple-ufs An Apple Mac OS X partition that contains a UFS filesystem. The scheme-specific types are "!168" for MBR, "!Apple_UNIX_SVR2" for APM and "!55465300-0000-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac" for GPT. apple-zfs An Apple Mac OS X partition that contains a ZFS vol- ume. The scheme-specific type is "!6a898cc3-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. The same GUID is being used also for illumos/Solaris /usr partition. See "CAVEATS" section below. dragonfly-label32 A DragonFly partition subdivided into filesystems with a BSD disklabel. The scheme-specific type is "!9d087404-1ca5-11dc-8817-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-label64 A DragonFly partition subdivided into filesystems with a disklabel64. The scheme-specific type is "!3d48ce54-1d16-11dc-8696-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-legacy A legacy partition type used in DragonFly. The scheme-specific type is "!bd215ab2-1d16-11dc-8696-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-ccd A DragonFly partition used with Concatenated Disk driver. The scheme-specific type is "!dbd5211b-1ca5-11dc-8817-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-hammer A DragonFly partition that contains a Hammer filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!61dc63ac-6e38-11dc-8513-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-hammer2 A DragonFly partition that contains a Hammer2 filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!5cbb9ad1-862d-11dc-a94d-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-swap A DragonFly partition dedicated to swap space. The scheme-specific type is "!9d58fdbd-1ca5-11dc-8817-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-ufs A DragonFly partition that contains an UFS1 filesys- tem. The scheme-specific type is "!9d94ce7c-1ca5-11dc-8817-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. dragonfly-vinum A DragonFly partition used with Logical Volume Man- ager. The scheme-specific type is "!9dd4478f-1ca5-11dc-8817-01301bb8a9f5" for GPT. ebr A partition subdivided into filesystems with a EBR. The scheme-specific type is "!5" for MBR. fat16 A partition that contains a FAT16 filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!6" for MBR. fat32 A partition that contains a FAT32 filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!11" for MBR. fat32lba A partition that contains a FAT32 (LBA) filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!12" for MBR. hifive-fsbl A raw partition containing a HiFive first stage bootloader. The scheme-specific type is "!5b193300-fc78-40cd-8002-e86c45580b47" for GPT. hifive-bbl A raw partition containing a HiFive second stage bootloader. The scheme-specific type is "!2e54b353-1271-4842-806f-e436d6af6985" for GPT. linux-data A Linux partition that contains some filesystem with data. The scheme-specific types are "!131" for MBR and "!0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4" for GPT. linux-lvm A Linux partition dedicated to Logical Volume Man- ager. The scheme-specific types are "!142" for MBR and "!e6d6d379-f507-44c2-a23c-238f2a3df928" for GPT. linux-raid A Linux partition used in a software RAID configura- tion. The scheme-specific types are "!253" for MBR and "!a19d880f-05fc-4d3b-a006-743f0f84911e" for GPT. linux-swap A Linux partition dedicated to swap space. The scheme-specific types are "!130" for MBR and "!0657fd6d-a4ab-43c4-84e5-0933c84b4f4f" for GPT. 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. ms-basic-data A basic data partition (BDP) for Microsoft operating systems. In the GPT this type is the equivalent to partition types fat16, fat32 and ntfs in MBR. This type is used for GPT exFAT partitions. The scheme- specific type is "!ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7" for GPT. ms-ldm-data A partition that contains Logical Disk Manager (LDM) volumes. The scheme-specific types are "!66" for MBR, "!af9b60a0-1431-4f62-bc68-3311714a69ad" for GPT. ms-ldm-metadata A partition that contains Logical Disk Manager (LDM) database. The scheme-specific type is "!5808c8aa-7e8f-42e0-85d2-e1e90434cfb3" for GPT. netbsd-ccd A NetBSD partition used with Concatenated Disk dri- ver. The scheme-specific type is "!2db519c4-b10f-11dc-b99b-0019d1879648" for GPT. netbsd-cgd An encrypted NetBSD partition. The scheme-specific type is "!2db519ec-b10f-11dc-b99b-0019d1879648" for GPT. netbsd-ffs A NetBSD partition that contains an UFS filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!49f48d5a-b10e-11dc-b99b-0019d1879648" for GPT. netbsd-lfs A NetBSD partition that contains an LFS filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!49f48d82-b10e-11dc-b99b-0019d1879648" for GPT. netbsd-raid A NetBSD partition used in a software RAID configu- ration. The scheme-specific type is "!49f48daa-b10e-11dc-b99b-0019d1879648" for GPT. netbsd-swap A NetBSD partition dedicated to swap space. The scheme-specific type is "!49f48d32-b10e-11dc-b99b-0019d1879648" for GPT. ntfs A partition that contains a NTFS or exFAT filesys- tem. The scheme-specific type is "!7" for MBR. prep-boot The system partition dedicated to storing boot load- ers on some PowerPC systems, notably those made by IBM. The scheme-specific types are "!65" for MBR and "!9e1a2d38-c612-4316-aa26-8b49521e5a8b" for GPT. solaris-boot A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to boot loader. The scheme-specific type is "!6a82cb45-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. solaris-root A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to root filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!6a85cf4d-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. solaris-swap A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to swap. The scheme-specific type is "!6a87c46f-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. solaris-backup A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to backup. The scheme-specific type is "!6a8b642b-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. solaris-var A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to /var filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!6a8ef2e9-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. solaris-home A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to /home filesystem. The scheme-specific type is "!6a90ba39-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. solaris-altsec A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to alternate sector. The scheme-specific type is "!6a9283a5-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. solaris-reserved A illumos/Solaris partition dedicated to reserved space. The scheme-specific type is "!6a945a3b-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631" for GPT. u-boot-env A raw partition dedicated to U-Boot for storing its environment. The scheme-specific type is "!3de21764-95bd-54bd-a5c3-4abe786f38a8" for GPT. vmware-vmfs A partition that contains a VMware File System (VMFS). The scheme-specific types are "!251" for MBR and "!aa31e02a-400f-11db-9590-000c2911d1b8" for GPT. vmware-vmkdiag A partition that contains a VMware diagostic filesystem. The scheme-specific types are "!252" for MBR and "!9d275380-40ad-11db-bf97-000c2911d1b8" for GPT. vmware-reserved A VMware reserved partition. The scheme-specific type is "!9198effc-31c0-11db-8f-78-000c2911d1b8" for GPT. vmware-vsanhdr A partition claimed by VMware VSAN. The scheme-spe- cific type is "!381cfccc-7288-11e0-92ee-000c2911d0b2" for GPT. ATTRIBUTES The scheme-specific attributes for EBR: active The scheme-specific attributes for GPT: bootme When set, the gptboot stage 1 boot loader will try to boot the system from this partition. Multiple partitions can be marked with the bootme attribute. See gptboot(8) for more details. bootonce Setting this attribute automatically sets the bootme attribute. When set, the gptboot stage 1 boot loader will try to boot the system from this partition only once. Multiple partitions can be marked with the bootonce and bootme attribute pairs. See gptboot(8) for more details. bootfailed This attribute should not be manually managed. It is managed by the gptboot stage 1 boot loader and the /etc/rc.d/gptboot start-up script. See gptboot(8) for more details. lenovofix Setting this attribute overwrites the Protective MBR with a new one where the 0xee partition is the second, rather than the first record. This resolves a BIOS compatibility issue with some Lenovo models including the X220, T420, and T520, allowing them to boot from GPT partitioned disks without using EFI. The scheme-specific attributes for MBR: active BOOTSTRAPPING FreeBSD supports several partitioning schemes and each scheme uses differ- ent bootstrap code. The bootstrap code is located in a specific disk area for each partitioning scheme, and may vary in size for different schemes. Bootstrap code can be separated into two types. The first type is embedded in the partitioning scheme's metadata, while the second type is located on a specific partition. Embedding bootstrap code should only be done with the gpart bootcode command with the -b bootcode option. The GEOM PART class knows how to safely embed bootstrap code into specific partitioning scheme metadata without causing any damage. The Master Boot Record (MBR) uses a 512-byte bootstrap code image, embedded into the partition table's metadata area. There are two variants of this bootstrap code: /boot/mbr and /boot/boot0. /boot/mbr searches for a parti- tion with the active attribute (see the "ATTRIBUTES" section) in the parti- tion table. Then it runs next bootstrap stage. The /boot/boot0 image con- tains a boot manager with some additional interactive functions for multi- booting from a user-selected partition. A BSD disklabel is usually created inside an MBR partition (slice) with type freebsd (see the "PARTITION TYPES" section). It uses 8 KiB size boot- strap code image /boot/boot, embedded into the partition table's metadata area. Both types of bootstrap code are used to boot from the GUID Partition Ta- ble. First, a protective MBR is embedded into the first disk sector from the /boot/pmbr image. It searches through the GPT for a freebsd-boot par- tition (see the "PARTITION TYPES" section) and runs the next bootstrap stage from it. The freebsd-boot partition should be smaller than 545 KiB. It can be located either before or after other FreeBSD partitions on the disk. There are two variants of bootstrap code to write to this partition: /boot/gptboot and /boot/gptzfsboot. /boot/gptboot is used to boot from UFS partitions. gptboot searches through freebsd-ufs partitions in the GPT and selects one to boot based on the bootonce and bootme attributes. If neither attribute is found, /boot/gptboot boots from the first freebsd-ufs partition. /boot/loader (the third bootstrap stage) is loaded from the first partition that matches these conditions. See gptboot(8) for more information. /boot/gptzfsboot is used to boot from ZFS. It searches through the GPT for freebsd-zfs partitions, trying to detect ZFS pools. After all pools are detected, /boot/loader is started from the first one found set as bootable. The APM scheme also does not support embedding bootstrap code. Instead, the 800 KiB bootstrap code image /boot/boot1.hfs should be written with the gpart bootcode command to a partition of type apple-boot, which should also be 800 KiB in size. OPERATIONAL FLAGS Actions other than the commit and undo actions take an optional -f flags option. This option is used to specify action-specific operational 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 re- sult 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. RECOVERING The GEOM PART class supports recovering of partition tables only for GPT. The GPT primary metadata is stored at the beginning of the device. For re- dundancy, a secondary (backup) copy of the metadata is stored at the end of the device. As a result of having two copies, some corruption of metadata is not fatal to the working of GPT. When the kernel detects corrupt meta- data, it marks this table as corrupt and reports the problem. destroy and recover are the only operations allowed on corrupt tables. If one GPT header appears to be corrupt but the other copy remains intact, the kernel will log the following: GEOM: provider: the primary GPT table is corrupt or invalid. GEOM: provider: using the secondary instead -- recovery strongly advised. or GEOM: provider: the secondary GPT table is corrupt or invalid. GEOM: provider: using the primary only -- recovery suggested. Also gpart commands such as show, status and list will report about corrupt tables. If the size of the device has changed (e.g., volume expansion) the sec- ondary GPT header will no longer be located in the last sector. This is not a metadata corruption, but it is dangerous because any corruption of the primary GPT will lead to loss of the partition table. This problem is reported by the kernel with the message: GEOM: provider: the secondary GPT header is not in the last LBA. This situation can be recovered with the recover command. This command re- constructs the corrupt metadata using known valid metadata and relocates the secondary GPT to the end of the device. NOTE: The GEOM PART class can detect the same partition table visible through different GEOM providers, and some of them will be marked as cor- rupt. Be careful when choosing a provider for recovery. If you choose in- correctly you can destroy the metadata of another GEOM class, e.g., GEOM MIRROR or GEOM LABEL. SYSCTL VARIABLES The following sysctl(8) variables can be used to control the behavior of the PART GEOM class. The default value is shown next to each variable. kern.geom.part.allow_nesting: 0 By default, some schemes (currently BSD and BSD64) do not permit further nested partitioning. This variable overrides this restric- tion and allows arbitrary nesting (except within partitions created at offset 0). Some schemes have their own separate checks, for which see below. kern.geom.part.auto_resize: 1 This variable controls automatic resize behavior of the PART GEOM class. When this variable is enable and new size of provider is detected, the schema metadata is resized but all changes are not saved to disk, until gpart commit is run to confirm changes. This behavior is also reported with diagnostic message: GEOM_PART: (provider) was automatically resized. Use `gpart commit (provider)` to save changes or `gpart undo (provider)` to revert them. kern.geom.part.check_integrity: 1 This variable controls the behaviour of metadata integrity checks. When integrity checks are enabled, the PART GEOM class verifies all generic partition parameters obtained from the disk metadata. If some inconsistency is detected, the partition table will be re- jected with a diagnostic message: GEOM_PART: Integrity check failed (provider, scheme). kern.geom.part.gpt.allow_nesting: 0 By default the GPT scheme is allowed only at the outermost nesting level. This variable allows this restriction to be removed. kern.geom.part.ldm.debug: 0 Debug level of the Logical Disk Manager (LDM) module. This can be set to a number between 0 and 2 inclusive. If set to 0 minimal de- bug information is printed, and if set to 2 the maximum amount of debug information is printed. kern.geom.part.ldm.show_mirrors: 0 This variable controls how the Logical Disk Manager (LDM) module handles mirrored volumes. By default mirrored volumes are shown as partitions with type ms-ldm-data (see the "PARTITION TYPES" sec- tion). If this variable set to 1 each component of the mirrored volume will be present as independent partition. NOTE: This may break a mirrored volume and lead to data damage. kern.geom.part.mbr.enforce_chs: 0 Specify how the Master Boot Record (MBR) module does alignment. If this variable is set to a non-zero value, the module will automati- cally recalculate the user-specified offset and size for alignment with the CHS geometry. Otherwise the values will be left un- changed. kern.geom.part.separator: Specify an optional separator that will be inserted between the GEOM name and partition name. This variable is a loader(8) tun- able. Note that setting this variable may break software which as- sumes a particular naming scheme. EXIT STATUS Exit status is 0 on success, and 1 if the command fails. EXAMPLES The examples below assume that the disk's logical block size is 512 bytes, regardless of its physical block size. GPT In this example, we will format ada0 with the GPT scheme and create boot, swap and root partitions. First, we need to create the partition table: /sbin/gpart create -s GPT ada0 Next, we install a protective MBR with the first-stage bootstrap code. The protective MBR lists a single, bootable partition spanning the entire disk, thus allowing non-GPT-aware BIOSes to boot from the disk and preventing tools which do not understand the GPT scheme from considering the disk to be unformatted. /sbin/gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr ada0 We then create a dedicated freebsd-boot partition to hold the second-stage boot loader, which will load the FreeBSD kernel and modules from a UFS or ZFS filesystem. This partition must be larger than the bootstrap code (ei- ther /boot/gptboot for UFS or /boot/gptzfsboot for ZFS), but smaller than 545 KiB since the first-stage loader will load the entire partition into memory during boot, regardless of how much data it actually contains. We create a 472-block (236 KiB) boot partition at offset 40, which is the size of the partition table (34 blocks or 17 KiB) rounded up to the nearest 4 KiB boundary. /sbin/gpart add -b 40 -s 472 -t freebsd-boot ada0 /sbin/gpart bootcode -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada0 We now create a 4 GiB swap partition at the first available offset, which is 40 + 472 = 512 blocks (256 KiB). /sbin/gpart add -s 4G -t freebsd-swap ada0 Aligning the swap partition and all subsequent partitions on a 256 KiB boundary ensures optimal performance on a wide range of media, from plain old disks with 512-byte blocks, through modern "advanced format" disks with 4096-byte physical blocks, to RAID volumes with stripe sizes of up to 256 KiB. Finally, we create and format an 8 GiB freebsd-ufs partition for the root filesystem, leaving the rest of the device free for additional filesystems: /sbin/gpart add -s 8G -t freebsd-ufs ada0 /sbin/newfs -Uj /dev/ada0p3 MBR In this example, we will format ada0 with the MBR scheme and create a sin- gle partition which we subdivide using a traditional BSD disklabel. First, we create the partition table as well as a single partition 64 GiB in size and an alignment of 4 KiB, then we mark that partition active (bootable) and install the first-stage boot loader: /sbin/gpart create -s MBR ada0 /sbin/gpart add -t freebsd -s 64G -a 4k ada0 /sbin/gpart set -a active -i 1 ada0 /sbin/gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot0 ada0 Next, we create a disklabel in that partition ("slice" in disklabel termi- nology) with room for up to 20 partitions: /sbin/gpart create -s BSD -n 20 ada0s1 We then create an 8 GiB root partition and a 4 GiB swap partition: /sbin/gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 8G ada0s1 /sbin/gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 4G ada0s1 Finally, we install the appropriate boot loader for the BSD label: /sbin/gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot ada0s1 Deleting Partitions and Destroying the Partitioning Scheme If a Device busy error is shown when trying to destroy a partition table, remember that all of the partitions must be deleted first with the delete action. In this example, da0 has three partitions: /sbin/gpart delete -i 3 da0 /sbin/gpart delete -i 2 da0 /sbin/gpart delete -i 1 da0 /sbin/gpart destroy da0 Rather than deleting each partition and then destroying the partitioning scheme, the -F option can be given with destroy to delete all of the parti- tions before destroying the partitioning scheme. This is equivalent to the previous example: /sbin/gpart destroy -F da0 Backup and Restore Create a backup of the partition table from da0: /sbin/gpart backup da0 > da0.backup Restore the partition table from the backup to da0: /sbin/gpart restore -l da0 < /mnt/da0.backup Clone the partition table from ada0 to ada1 and ada2: /sbin/gpart backup ada0 | /sbin/gpart restore -F ada1 ada2 DIAGNOSTICS gpart: arg0 '%s': Invalid argument The provided geom argument is not a GEOM provider. Not every device in devfs(4) is a GEOM provider. For exam- ple, a zfs(4) zvol will show up as a GEOM provider only if its volmode is set properly (refer to zfsprops(8) for details). SEE ALSO geom(4), xo_options(7), boot0cfg(8), geom(8), glabel(8), gptboot(8) HISTORY The gpart utility appeared in FreeBSD 7.0. AUTHORS Marcel Moolenaar <marcel@FreeBSD.org> CAVEATS Partition type apple-zfs (6a898cc3-1dd2-11b2-99a6-080020736631) is also be- ing used on illumos/Solaris platforms for ZFS volumes. FreeBSD ports 15.1 April 20, 2026 GPART(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | PARTITIONING SCHEMES | PARTITION TYPES | ATTRIBUTES | BOOTSTRAPPING | OPERATIONAL FLAGS | RECOVERING | SYSCTL VARIABLES | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS | CAVEATS
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