xref: /netbsd-src/sbin/disklabel/disklabel.8 (revision d710132b4b8ce7f7cccaaf660cb16aa16b4077a0)
1.\"	$NetBSD: disklabel.8,v 1.45 2003/05/06 08:23:57 wiz Exp $
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37.\"	@(#)disklabel.8	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
38.\"
39.Dd May 2, 2003
40.Dt DISKLABEL 8
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm disklabel
44.Nd read and write disk pack label
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm
47.Op Fl rt
48.Op Fl C
49.Ar disk
50.Nm
51.Fl w
52.Op Fl r
53.Op Fl f Ar disktab
54.Ar disk Ar disktype
55.Oo Ar packid Oc
56.Nm
57.Fl e
58.Op Fl r
59.Op Fl I
60.Op Fl C
61.Ar disk
62.Nm
63.Fl i
64.Op Fl I
65.Op Fl r
66.Ar disk
67.Nm
68.Fl R
69.Op Fl r
70.Ar disk Ar protofile
71.Nm
72.Op Fl NW
73.Ar disk
74.sp
75.Nm
76.Fl B
77.Op Fl f Ar disktab
78.Oo
79.Fl b Ar boot1
80.Op Fl s Ar boot2
81.Oc
82.Ar disk
83.Oo Ar disktype Oc
84.Nm
85.Fl w
86.Fl B
87.Op Fl f Ar disktab
88.Oo
89.Fl b Ar boot1
90.Op Fl s Ar boot2
91.Oc
92.Ar disk Ar disktype
93.Oo Ar packid Oc
94.Nm
95.Fl R
96.Fl B
97.Op Fl f Ar disktab
98.Oo
99.Fl b Ar boot1
100.Op Fl s Ar boot2
101.Oc
102.Ar disk Ar protofile
103.Oo Ar disktype Oc
104.Sh DESCRIPTION
105.Nm
106can be used to install, examine or modify the label on a disk drive or pack.
107When writing the label, it can be used
108to change the drive identification,
109the disk partitions on the drive,
110or to replace a damaged label.
111On some systems,
112.Nm
113can be used to install bootstrap code as well.
114.Pp
115There are several forms of the command that read (display), install or edit
116the label on a disk.
117Each form has an additional option,
118.Fl r ,
119which causes the label to be read from or written to the disk directly,
120rather than going through the system's in-core copy of the label.
121This option may allow a label to be installed on a disk
122without kernel support for a label, such as when labels are first installed
123on a system; it must be used when first installing a label on a disk.
124Any special effects of the
125.Fl r
126flag are described with the affected commands.
127.Pp
128The
129.Fl I
130option is similar to the
131.Fl r
132option but provides defaults instead of failing with
133an error, if there is no existing disklabel on the disk.
134.Pp
135The read and install forms also support the
136.Fl B
137option to install bootstrap code on some platforms,
138e.g., hp300, vax, and arm32.
139The
140.Fl B
141option is not supported on all platforms.
142These variants are described later.
143.Pp
144The first form of the command (read) is used to examine the label on the named
145disk drive (e.g., sd0 or /dev/rsd0c).
146It will display all of the parameters associated with the drive
147and its partition layout.
148Unless the
149.Fl r
150flag is given,
151the kernel's in-core copy of the label is displayed;
152if the disk has no label, or the partition types on the disk are incorrect,
153the kernel may have constructed or modified the label.
154If the
155.Fl r
156flag is given, the label from the raw disk will be displayed rather
157than the in-core label.
158If the
159.Fl t
160flag is given, then the label will be formatted as a
161.Xr disktab 5
162entry.
163.Pp
164The second form of the command, with the
165.Fl w
166flag, is used to write a standard label on the designated drive.
167The required arguments to
168.Nm
169are the drive to be labelled (e.g. sd0), and
170the drive type as described in the
171.Xr disktab 5
172file.
173The drive parameters and partitions are taken from that file.
174If different disks of the same physical type are to have different
175partitions, it will be necessary to have separate disktab entries
176describing each, or to edit the label after installation as described below.
177The optional argument is a pack identification string,
178up to 16 characters long.
179The pack id must be quoted if it contains blanks.
180If the disk does not already have a label, the
181.Fl r
182flag must be used.
183In either case, the kernel's in-core label is replaced.
184.Pp
185An alternate
186.Xr disktab 5
187file may be specified with the
188.Fl f Ar disktab
189option.
190.Pp
191An existing disk label may be edited by using the
192.Fl e
193flag.
194The label is formatted and then supplied to an editor for changes.
195If no editor is specified in an
196.Ev EDITOR
197environment variable,
198.Xr vi 1
199is used.
200When the editor terminates, the formatted label is reread
201and used to rewrite the disk label.
202.Pp
203Labels can also created interactively using the
204.Fl i
205flag.
206.Pp
207The
208.Fl C
209flag causes the partition offset and size values to be displayed in
210.Aq cylinder/track/sector
211format.
212Note that, regardless of whether
213.Fl C
214was specified, this format is always accepted by
215.Nm
216on input with either the
217.Fl e
218or
219.Fl R
220flag.
221.Pp
222With the
223.Fl R
224flag,
225.Nm
226is capable of restoring a disk label that was formatted
227in a prior operation and saved in an ascii file.
228The prototype file used to create the label should be in the same format
229as that produced when reading or editing a label.
230Comments are delimited by
231.Ar \&#
232and newline.
233.Pp
234The
235.Fl NW
236flags for
237.Nm
238explicitly disallow and
239allow, respectively, writing of the pack label area on the selected disk.
240.Pp
241The final three forms of
242.Nm
243are used to install bootstrap code on machines where the bootstrap is part
244of the label.
245The bootstrap code is composed of one or two boot programs depending on
246the machine.
247The
248.Fl B
249option is used (on some platforms only, see above) to denote that
250bootstrap code is to be installed.
251The
252.Fl r
253flag is implied by
254.Fl B
255and never needs to be specified.
256The name of the boot program(s) to be installed can be selected in a
257variety of ways.
258First, the names can be specified explicitly via the
259.Fl b
260and
261.Fl s
262flags.
263On machines with only a single level of boot program,
264.Fl b
265is the name of that program.
266For machines with a two-level bootstrap,
267.Fl b
268indicates the primary boot program and
269.Fl s
270the secondary boot program.
271If the names are not explicitly given, standard boot programs will be used.
272The boot programs are located in
273.Pa /usr/mdec .
274The names of the programs are taken from the
275.Dq b0
276and
277.Dq b1
278parameters of the
279.Xr disktab 5
280entry for the disk if
281.Ar disktype
282was given and its disktab entry exists and includes those parameters.
283Otherwise, boot program names are derived from the name of the disk.
284These names are of the form
285.Pa basename Ns boot
286for the primary (or only) bootstrap, and
287.Pf boot Pa basename
288for the secondary bootstrap;
289for example,
290.Pa /usr/mdec/sdboot
291and
292.Pa /usr/mdec/bootsd
293if the disk device is
294.Em sd0 .
295.Pp
296The first of the three boot-installation forms is used to install
297bootstrap code without changing the existing label.
298It is essentially a read command with respect to the disk label
299itself and all options are related to the specification of the boot
300program as described previously.
301The final two forms are analogous to the basic write and restore versions
302except that they will install bootstrap code in addition to a new label.
303.Sh FILES
304.Bl -tag -width /usr/mdec/xxboot -compact
305.It Pa /etc/disktab
306.It Pa /usr/mdec/ Ns Em xx Ns boot
307.It Pa /usr/mdec/boot Ns Em xx
308.El
309.Sh EXAMPLES
310.Dl disklabel sd0
311.Pp
312Display the in-core label for sd0 as obtained via
313.Pa /dev/rsd0c .
314.Pp
315.Dl disklabel -w -r /dev/rsd0c sd2212 foo
316.Pp
317Create a label for sd0 based on information for
318.Dq sd2212
319found in
320.Pa /etc/disktab ,
321using
322.Pa foo
323as the disk pack label.
324Any existing bootstrap code will be clobbered.
325If you do not have an entry for your disk in
326.Pa /etc/disktab ,
327you can use this style to put
328an initial label onto a new disk.
329Then dump the label to a file (using
330.Em disklabel sd0 \*[Gt]
331.Em protofile ) ,
332editing the file, and replacing the label with
333.Em disklabel -R sd0
334.Em protofile .
335.Pp
336.Dl disklabel -e -r sd0
337.Pp
338Read the on-disk label for sd0, edit it and reinstall in-core as well
339as on-disk.
340Existing bootstrap code is unaffected.
341.Pp
342.Dl disklabel -e -I sd0
343.Pp
344As previous, but don't fail if there was no label on the disk yet;
345provide some default values instead.
346.Pp
347.Dl disklabel -i -I sd0
348.Pp
349As previous, only use the built-in interactive editor.
350.Pp
351.Dl disklabel -R sd0 mylabel
352.Pp
353Restore the on-disk and in-core label for sd0 from information in
354.Pa mylabel .
355Existing bootstrap code is unaffected.
356.Pp
357.Dl disklabel -B sd0
358.Pp
359Install a new bootstrap on sd0 (only for platforms which support the
360.Fl B
361option, see above).
362The boot code comes from
363.Pa /usr/mdec/sdboot
364and possibly
365.Pa /usr/mdec/bootsd .
366On-disk and in-core labels are unchanged.
367.Pp
368.Dl disklabel -w -B /dev/rsd0c -b newboot sd2212
369.Pp
370Install a new label and bootstrap (on platforms which support the
371.Fl B
372option, see above).
373The label is derived from disktab information for
374.Dq sd2212
375and installed both in-core and on-disk.
376The bootstrap code comes from the file
377.Pa /usr/mdec/newboot .
378.Pp
379.Dl disklabel -R -r sd0 \*[Lt]protofile\*[Gt]
380.Pp
381Install a new label and bootstrap on a disk, from a prototype label
382file.
383This is a good way to install a label on a previously unlabeled
384disk for which no entry appears in
385.Pa  /etc/disktab ,
386if you create the
387prototype file by dumping some other disk's label to a file and editing
388it appropriately (total size, partition offsets, types, etc.)
389.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
390The kernel device drivers will not allow the size of a disk partition
391to be decreased or the offset of a partition to be changed while it is open.
392Some device drivers create a label containing only a single large partition
393if a disk is unlabeled; thus, the label must be written to the
394.Dq a
395partition of the disk while it is open.
396This sometimes requires the desired label to be set in two steps,
397the first one creating at least one other partition,
398and the second setting the label on the new partition
399while shrinking the
400.Dq a
401partition.
402.Pp
403On some machines the bootstrap code may not fit entirely in the area
404allocated for it by some filesystems.
405As a result, it may not be possible to have filesystems on some partitions
406of a
407.Dq bootable
408disk.
409When installing bootstrap code,
410.Nm
411checks for these cases.
412If the installed boot code would overlap a partition of type FS_UNUSED
413it is marked as type FS_BOOT.
414The
415.Xr newfs 8
416utility will disallow creation of filesystems on FS_BOOT partitions.
417Conversely, if a partition has a type other than FS_UNUSED or FS_BOOT,
418.Nm
419will not install bootstrap code that overlaps it.
420.Sh SEE ALSO
421.Xr disklabel 5 ,
422.Xr disktab 5 ,
423.Xr fdisk 8 ,
424.Xr installboot 8 ,
425.Xr mbrlabel 8
426.Sh BUGS
427If the disk partition is not specified in the disk name
428(i.e.,
429.Dq xy0
430instead of
431.Dq /dev/rxy0c ) ,
432.Nm
433will construct the full pathname of the disk and use the
434.Dq d
435partition on i386, hpcmips, or arc, and the
436.Dq c
437partition on all others.
438.Pp
439On the sparc, sparc64, sun2, and sun3
440.Nx
441systems, the size of each partition must be a multiple of the number
442of sectors per cylinder (i.e., each partition must be an integer
443number of cylinders), or the boot ROMs will declare the label
444invalid and fail to boot the system.
445.Pp
446In addition, the
447.Fl r
448option should never be used on a sparc, sparc64, sun2 or sun3 system
449boot disk - the
450.Nx
451kernel translates the
452.Nx
453disk label into a SunOS compatible format (which is required by the
454boot PROMs) when it writes the label.
455Using the
456.Fl r
457flag causes
458.Nm
459to write directly to disk, and bypass the format translation.
460This will result in a disk label that the PROMs will not recognize,
461and that therefore cannot be booted from.
462