NetBSD/sbin/gpt/gpt.8

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.\" Copyright (c) 2002 Marcel Moolenaar
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.\" $FreeBSD: src/sbin/gpt/gpt.8,v 1.17 2006/06/22 22:22:32 marcel Exp $
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.Dd September 20, 2014
.Dt GPT 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm gpt
.Nd GUID partition table maintenance utility
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Ar general_options
.Ar command
.Op Ar command_options
.Ar device ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility provides the necessary functionality to manipulate GUID partition
tables
.Pq GPTs ,
but see
.Sx BUGS
below for how and where functionality is missing.
The basic usage model of the
.Nm
tool follows that of the
.Xr cvs 1
tool.
The general options are described in the following paragraph.
The remaining paragraphs describe the individual commands with their options.
Here we conclude by mentioning that a
.Ar device
is either a special file
corresponding to a disk-like device or a regular file.
The command is applied to each
.Ar device
listed on the command line.
.Ss General Options
The general options allow the user to change default settings or otherwise
change the behaviour that is applicable to all commands.
Not all commands use all default settings, so some general options may not
have an effect on all commands.
.Pp
The
.Fl p Ar partitions
option allows the user to change the number of partitions the GPT can
accommodate.
This is used whenever a new GPT is created.
By default, the
.Nm
utility will create space for 128 partitions (or 32 sectors of 512 bytes).
.Pp
The
.Fl r
option causes the
.Nm
utility to open the device for reading only.
Currently this option is primarily useful for the
.Ic show
command, but the intent
is to use it to implement dry-run behaviour.
.Pp
The
.Fl v
option controls the verbosity level.
The level increases with every occurrence of this option.
There is no formalized definition of the different levels yet.
.Ss Commands
.Bl -tag -width indent
.\" ==== add ====
.It Nm Ic add Oo Fl a Ar alignment Oc Oo Fl b Ar blocknr Oc \
Oo Fl i Ar index Oc Oo Fl l Ar label Oc Oo Fl s Ar size Oc \
Oo Fl t Ar type Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic add
command allows the user to add a new partition to an existing table.
By default, it will create a UFS partition covering the first available block
of an unused disk space.
The command-specific options can be used to control this behaviour.
.Pp
The
.Fl a Ar alignment
option allows the user to specify an alignment for the start and size.
The alignment may have a suffix to indicate its magnitude.
.Nm
will attempt to align the partition.
.Pp
The
.Fl b Ar blocknr
option allows the user to specify the starting (beginning) sector number of
the partition.
The minimum sector number is 1, but has to fall inside an unused region of
disk space that is covered by the GPT.
.Pp
The
.Fl i Ar index
option allows the user to specify which (free) entry in the GPT table is to
be used for the new partition.
By default, the first free entry is selected.
.Pp
The
.Fl l Ar label
option allows the user to specify a label for the partition.
.Pp
The
.Fl s Ar size
option allows the user to specify the size of the partition.
If there is no suffix, or the suffix is
.Sq s
or
.Sq S
then size is in sectors, otherwise size is in bytes which must be
a multiple of the device's sector size.
The minimum size is 1 sector.
.Pp
The
.Fl t Ar type
option allows the user to specify the partition type.
The type is given as an UUID, but
.Nm
accepts
.Cm efi , swap , ufs , hfs , linux ,
.Cm raid , lfs , ccd , cgd , bios ,
.Cm ffs ,
and
.Cm windows
as aliases for the most commonly used partition types.
.\" ==== backup ====
.It Nm Ic backup Ar device ...
The
.Ic backup
command dumps the MBR or (PMBR) and GPT partition tables to standard
output in a format to be used by the
.Ic restore
command.
The format is a plist.
It should not be modified.
.\" ==== biosboot ====
.It Nm Ic biosboot Oo Fl c Ar bootcode Oc Oo Fl i Ar index Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic biosboot
command allows the user to configure the partition that contains the
primary bootstrap program, used during
.Xr boot 8 .
.Pp
The
.Fl c
option allows the user to specify the filename that
.Nm
should read the bootcode from.
The default is to read from
.Pa /usr/mdec/gptmbr.bin .
.Pp
The
.Fl i
option selects the partition that should contain the primary
bootstrap code, as installed via
.Xr installboot 8 .
.\" ==== create ====
.It Nm Ic create Oo Fl fp Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic create
command allows the user to create a new (empty) GPT.
By default, one cannot create a GPT when the device contains a MBR,
however this can be overridden with the
.Fl f
option.
If the
.Fl f
option is specified, an existing MBR is destroyed and any partitions
described by the MBR are lost.
.Pp
The
.Fl p
option tells
.Nm
to create only the primary table and not the backup table.
This option is only useful for debugging and should not be used otherwise.
.\" ==== destroy ====
.It Nm Ic destroy Oo Fl r Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic destroy
command allows the user to destroy an existing, possibly not empty GPT.
.Pp
The
.Fl r
option instructs
.Nm
to destroy the table in a way that it can be recovered.
.\" ==== label ====
.It Nm Ic label Oo Fl a Oc Ao Fl f Ar file | Fl l Ar label Ac Ar device ...
.It Nm Ic label Oo Fl b Ar blocknr Oc Oo Fl i Ar index Oc \
Oo Fl s Ar sectors Oc Oo Fl t Ar type Oc \
Ao Fl f Ar file | Fl l Ar label Ac Ar device ...
The
.Ic label
command allows the user to label any partitions that match the selection.
At least one of the following selection options must be specified.
.Pp
The
.Fl a
option specifies that all partitions should be labeled.
It is mutually exclusive with all other selection options.
.Pp
The
.Fl b Ar blocknr
option selects the partition that starts at the given block number.
.Pp
The
.Fl i Ar index
option selects the partition with the given partition number.
.Pp
The
.Fl s Ar sectors
option selects all partitions that have the given size.
This can cause multiple partitions to be labeled.
.Pp
The
.Fl t Ar type
option selects all partitions that have the given type.
The type is given as an UUID or by the aliases that the
.Ic add
command accepts.
This can cause multiple partitions to be labeled.
.Pp
The
.Fl f Ar file
or
.Fl l Ar label
options specify the new label to be assigned to the selected partitions.
The
.Fl f Ar file
option is used to read the label from the specified file.
Only the first line is read from the file and the trailing newline
character is stripped.
If the file name is the dash or minus sign
.Pq Fl ,
the label is read from
the standard input.
The
.Fl l Ar label
option is used to specify the label in the command line.
The label is assumed to be encoded in UTF-8.
.\" ==== migrate ====
.It Nm Ic migrate Oo Fl fs Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic migrate
command allows the user to migrate an MBR-based disk partitioning into a
GPT-based partitioning.
By default, the MBR is not migrated when it contains partitions of an unknown
type.
This can be overridden with the
.Fl f
option.
Specifying the
.Fl f
option will cause unknown partitions to be ignored and any data in it
to be lost.
.Pp
The
.Fl s
option prevents migrating
.Bx
disk labels into GPT partitions by creating
the GPT equivalent of a slice.
Note that the
.Fl s
option isn't applicable to
.Nx
partitions.
.Pp
The
.Ic migrate
command requires space at the beginning and the end of the device outside
any partitions to store the GPTs.
Space is required for the GPT header
.Pq which takes one sector
and the GPT partition table.
See the
.Fl p
option
for the size of the GPT partition table.
By default, just about all devices have a minimum of 62 sectors free at the
beginning of the device, but don't have any free space at the end.
For the default GPT partition table size on a 512 byte sector size device,
33 sectors at the end of the device would need to be freed.
.\" ==== recover ====
.It Nm Ic recover Ar device ...
The
.Ic recover
command tries to restore the GPT partition label from the backup
near the end of the disk.
It is very useful in case the primary label was deleted.
.\" ==== remove ====
.It Nm Ic remove Oo Fl a Oc Ar device ...
.It Nm Ic remove Oo Fl b Ar blocknr Oc Oo Fl i Ar index Oc \
Oo Fl s Ar sectors Oc Oo Fl t Ar type Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic remove
command allows the user to remove any and all partitions that match the
selection.
It uses the same selection options as the
.Ic label
command.
See above for a description of these options.
Partitions are removed by clearing the partition type.
No other information is changed.
.\" ==== resize ====
.It Nm Ic resize Fl i Ar index Oo Fl a Ar alignment Oc \
Oo Fl s Ar size Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic resize
command allows the user to resize a partition.
The partition may be shrunk and if there is sufficient free space
immediately after it then it may be expanded.
The
.Fl s
option allows the new size to be specified, otherwise the partition will
be increased to the maximum available size.
If there is no suffix, or the suffix is
.Sq s
or
.Sq S
then size is in sectors, otherwise size is in bytes which must be
a multiple of the device's sector size.
The minimum size is 1 sector.
If the
.Fl a
option is specified then the size will be adjusted to be a multiple of
alignment if possible.
.\" ==== restore ====
.It Nm Ic restore Oo Fl F Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic restore
command restores a partition table that was previously saved using the
.Ic backup
command.
The partition table is read from standard input and is expected to be in
the format of a plist.
It assumes an empty disk.
The
.Fl F
option can be used to blank the disk.
The new disk does not have to be the same size as the old disk as long as all
the partitions fit, as
.Ic restore
will automatically adjust.
However, the new disk must use the same sector size as the old disk.
.\" ==== set ====
.It Nm Ic set Fl a Ar attribute Fl i Ar index Ar device ...
The
.Ic set
command sets various partition attributes.
The
.Fl a
option specifies which attributes to set and may be specified more than once.
The
.Fl i
option specifies which entry to update.
The possible attributes are
.Do biosboot Dc ,
.Do bootme Dc ,
.Do bootonce Dc , and
.Do bootfailed Dc .
The biosboot flag is used to indicate which partition should be booted
by legacy BIOS boot code.
See the
.Ic biosboot
command for more information.
The other three attributes are for compatibility with
.Fx
and are not currently used by any
.Nx
code.
They may be used by
.Nx
code in the future.
.\" ==== show ====
.It Nm Ic show Oo Fl glu Oc Oo Fl i Ar index Oc Ar device ...
The
.Ic show
command displays the current partitioning on the listed devices and gives
an overall view of the disk contents.
With the
.Fl g
option the GPT partition GUID will be displayed instead of the GPT partition
type.
With the
.Fl l
option the GPT partition label will be displayed instead of the GPT partition
type.
With the
.Fl u
option the GPT partition type is displayed as an UUID instead of in a
user friendly form.
With the
.Fl i
option, all the details of a particular GPT partition will be displayed.
The format of this display is subject to change.
None of the options have any effect on non-GPT partitions.
The order of precedence for the options are:
.Fl i ,
.Fl l ,
.Fl g ,
.Fl u .
.\" ==== unset ====
.It Nm Ic unset Fl a Ar attribute Fl i Ar index Ar device ...
The
.Ic unset
command unsets various partition attributes.
The
.Fl a
option specifies which attributes to unset and may be specified more than once.
The
.Fl i
option specifies which entry to update.
The possible attributes are
.Do biosboot Dc ,
.Do bootme Dc ,
.Do bootonce Dc , and
.Do bootfailed Dc .
The biosboot flag is used to indicate which partition should be booted
by legacy BIOS boot code.
See the
.Ic biosboot
command for more information.
The other three attributes are for compatibility with
.Fx
and are not currently used by any
.Nx
code.
They may be used by
.Nx
code in the future.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Bd -literal
nas# gpt show wd3
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1  3907029167
nas# gpt create wd3
nas# gpt show wd3
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34  3907029101
  3907029135          32         Sec GPT table
  3907029167           1         Sec GPT header
nas# gpt add -s 10486224 -t swap -i 1 wd3
Partition added, use:
        dkctl rwd3d addwedge dk<N> 34 10486224 <type>
to create a wedge for it
nas# gpt label -i 1 -l swap_1 wd3
parition 1 on rwd3d labeled swap_1
nas# gpt show wd3
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34    10486224      1  GPT part - NetBSD swap
    10486258  3896542877
  3907029135          32         Sec GPT table
  3907029167           1         Sec GPT header
nas# gpt show -l wd3
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34    10486224      1  GPT part - "swap_1"
    10486258  3896542877
  3907029135          32         Sec GPT table
  3907029167           1         Sec GPT header
nas#
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr boot 8 ,
.Xr fdisk 8 ,
.Xr installboot 8 ,
.Xr mount 8 ,
.Xr newfs 8 ,
.Xr swapon 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility appeared in
.Fx 5.0
for ia64.
.Sh BUGS
The development of the
.Nm
utility is still work in progress.
Many necessary features are missing or partially implemented.
In practice this means that the manual page, supposed to describe these
features, is farther removed from being complete or useful.
As such, missing functionality is not even documented as missing.
However, it is believed that the currently present functionality is reliable
and stable enough that this tool can be used without bullet-proof footware if
one thinks one does not make mistakes.
.Pp
It is expected that the basic usage model does not change, but it is
possible that future versions will not be compatible in the strictest sense
of the word.
For example, the
.Fl p Ar partitions
option may be changed to a command option rather than a generic option.
There are only two commands that use it so there is a chance that the natural
tendency for people is to use it as a command option.
Also, options primarily intended for diagnostic or debug purposes may be
removed in future versions.
.Pp
Another possibility is that the current usage model is accompanied by
other interfaces to make the tool usable as a back-end.
This all depends on demand and thus feedback.