xref: /openbsd-src/sbin/disklabel/disklabel.8 (revision 50b7afb2c2c0993b0894d4e34bf857cb13ed9c80)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: disklabel.8,v 1.111 2014/07/16 13:46:30 deraadt Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: disklabel.8,v 1.9 1995/03/18 14:54:38 cgd Exp $
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34.\"	@(#)disklabel.8	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
35.\"
36.Dd $Mdocdate: July 16 2014 $
37.Dt DISKLABEL 8
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm disklabel
41.Nd read and write disk pack label
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm disklabel
44.Op Fl Acdtv
45.Op Fl h | p Ar unit
46.Ar disk
47.Nm disklabel
48.Fl w
49.Op Fl Acdnv
50.Ar disk Ar disktype
51.Op Ar packid
52.Nm disklabel
53.Fl e
54.Op Fl Acdnv
55.Ar disk
56.Nm disklabel
57.Fl E
58.Op Fl Acdnv
59.Op Fl F Ns | Ns Fl f Ar file
60.Ar disk
61.Nm disklabel
62.Fl R
63.Op Fl nv
64.Op Fl F Ns | Ns Fl f Ar file
65.Ar disk Ar protofile
66.Pp
67.Nm disklabel
68.Fl B\ \&
69.Op Fl nv
70.Op Fl b Ar boot1
71.Ar disk
72.Op Ar disktype
73.Nm disklabel
74.Fl Bw
75.Op Fl nv
76.Op Fl b Ar boot1
77.Ar disk Ar disktype
78.Op Ar packid
79.Nm disklabel
80.Fl BR
81.Op Fl nv
82.Op Fl b Ar boot1
83.Op Fl F Ns | Ns Fl f Ar file
84.Ar disk Ar protofile
85.Op Ar disktype
86.Sh DESCRIPTION
87The
88.Nm
89utility can be used to install, examine, or modify the label on a disk drive or
90pack.
91The disk label contains information about disk characteristics
92.Pq size, type, etc.
93and the partition layout, stored on the disk itself.
94It is used by the operating system to optimize disk I/O and
95locate the filesystems resident on the disk.
96.Pp
97.Nm
98supports 15 configurable partitions,
99.Sq a
100through
101.Sq p ,
102excluding
103.Sq c .
104The
105.Sq c
106partition describes the entire physical disk, is automatically created
107by the kernel, and cannot be modified or deleted by
108.Nm .
109By convention, the
110.Sq a
111partition of the boot disk is the root partition, and the
112.Sq b
113partition of the boot disk is the swap partition,
114but all other letters can be used in any order for any other
115partitions as desired.
116.Pp
117The options are as follows:
118.Bl -tag -width Ds
119.It Fl A
120Automatically allocate all the disk space in the
121.Ox
122portion of the disk in the recommended manner.
123See
124.Sx AUTOMATIC DISK ALLOCATION ,
125below.
126.It Fl B
127Install bootstrap code.
128Some architectures instead require bootstrap code installation to be
129done using an
130.Xr installboot 8
131type program, as described in
132.Xr boot 8 .
133.It Fl b Ar boot1
134Specify the primary boot program.
135.It Fl c
136Clear the system's in-core copy of the label and update it based on
137the on-disk label.
138.It Fl d
139Use the
140.Em default
141label.
142This ignores any existing
143.Ox
144disk label on the disk.
145.It Fl E
146Use the built-in command-driven label editor described below.
147.It Fl e
148Edit an existing disk label using the editor specified in the
149.Ev EDITOR
150environment variable, or
151.Xr vi 1
152if none is specified.
153.It Fl F Ar file
154Write entries to
155.Ar file
156in
157.Xr fstab 5
158format for any partitions for which mount point information is known.
159The entries will be written using disklabel UIDs.
160The
161.Fl F
162flag is only valid when used in conjunction with the
163.Fl E
164or
165.Fl R
166flags.
167If
168.Ar file
169already exists, it will be overwritten.
170.It Fl f Ar file
171The same as
172.Fl F
173except that entries will be written using disk device names.
174.It Fl h
175Print partition sizes in human readable format.
176.It Fl n
177Make no permanent changes to the disklabel
178.Pq useful for debugging purposes .
179.It Fl p Ar unit
180Print partition sizes in
181.Ar unit
182instead of sectors.
183Valid units are b(ytes), c(ylinders), k(ilobytes), m(egabytes), g(igabytes)
184and t(erabytes).
185For operations other than displaying a partition the
186.Ql %
187(percent of total) and
188.Ql &
189(percent of free) units are also accepted.
190.It Fl R
191Restore a disk label that was formatted in a prior operation and
192saved in an
193.Tn ASCII
194file.
195.It Fl t
196Format the label as a
197.Xr disktab 5
198entry.
199.It Fl v
200Print additional information during operation
201.Pq verbose mode .
202.It Fl w
203Write a standard label on the designated drive.
204.It Ar disk
205Specify the
206.Ar disk
207to operate on.
208It can be specified by its full pathname, by an abbreviated disk form,
209or by its disklabel UID.
210In its abbreviated form, the path to the device, the
211.Sq r
212denoting
213.Qq raw device ,
214and the partition letter, can all be omitted.
215For example, the first IDE disk can be specified as either
216.Pa /dev/rwd0c ,
217.Pa /dev/wd0c ,
218or
219.Ar wd0 .
220.It Ar disktype
221Specify a
222.Ar disktype
223entry from the
224.Xr disktab 5
225database.
226.It Ar packid
227Specify a pack identification string for the device
228.Pq see below .
229.It Ar protofile
230Used with the restore option
231.Pq Fl R
232to specify a file to read an ASCII label from.
233.El
234.Pp
235The first form of the command
236.Pq read
237is used to examine the label on the named disk drive.
238It will display all of the parameters associated with the drive
239and its partition layout.
240The kernel's in-core copy of the label is displayed; if
241the disk has no label, or the partition types on the disk are
242incorrect, the kernel may have constructed or modified the label.
243.Pp
244The second form of the command
245.Pq write
246is used to write a standard label on the designated drive.
247The drive parameters and partitions are taken from that file.
248If different disks of the same physical type are
249to have different partitions, it will be necessary to have separate
250disktab entries describing each, or to edit the label after
251installation as described below.
252The optional argument is a pack
253identification string, up to 16 characters long.
254The pack ID must be quoted if it contains blanks.
255The existing label will be updated via the in-core
256copy and any bootstrap code will be unaffected.
257.Pp
258In the third form of the command
259.Pq edit ,
260the label is read from the in-core kernel copy
261and then supplied to an editor for changes.
262If no editor is specified in an
263.Ev EDITOR
264environment variable,
265.Xr vi 1
266is used.
267When the editor terminates, the formatted label is reread and
268used to rewrite the disk label.
269Existing bootstrap code is unchanged.
270.Pp
271The built-in label editor
272.Pq fourth form
273provides a simple interactive label editor.
274Some commands or prompts take an optional unit.
275Available units are
276.Sq b
277for bytes,
278.Sq c
279for cylinders,
280.Sq k
281for kilobytes,
282.Sq m
283for megabytes,
284.Sq g
285for gigabytes,
286and
287.Sq t
288for terabytes.
289If no unit is given, the default is to use sectors
290(usually 512 bytes).
291Quantities will be rounded to the nearest
292cylinder when units are specified for sizes
293.Pq or offsets .
294Commands may be aborted by entering
295.Ql ^D
296.Pq Control-D .
297Entering
298.Ql ^D
299at the main
300.Ql >
301prompt will exit the editor.
302At prompts that request a size,
303.Ql *
304may be entered to indicate the rest of the available space.
305The editor commands are as follows:
306.Bl -tag -width "p [unit] "
307.It Cm \&? \*(Ba h
308Display help message with all available commands.
309There is also
310.Pq simple
311context-sensitive help available at most prompts.
312.It Cm A
313Allocate all the disk space in the recommended manner.
314See
315.Sx AUTOMATIC DISK ALLOCATION ,
316below.
317.It Cm a Op Ar part
318Add new partition.
319This option adds a new partition to the disk label.
320If no partition letter is specified
321.Pq a\-p ,
322the user will be prompted for one.
323.It Cm b
324Set
325.Ox
326disk boundaries.
327This option tells
328.Nm
329which parts of the disk it is allowed to modify.
330This option is probably only useful for ports with
331.Xr fdisk 8
332partition tables where the ending sector in the MBR is incorrect.
333The user may enter
334.Ql *
335at the
336.Dq Size
337prompt to indicate the entire size of the disk
338.Pq minus the starting sector .
339This is useful for disks where the
340fdisk partition table is incapable of storing the real size.
341Note: data may become corrupted if boundaries are extended such
342that they overlap with other resident operating systems.
343.It Cm c Op Ar part
344Change the size of an existing partition.
345If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
346The new size may be
347in terms of the aforementioned units and may also be prefixed with
348.Ql +
349or
350.Ql -
351to change the size by a relative amount.
352.It Cm D
353Sets the disk label to the default values as reported by the kernel.
354This simulates the case where there is no disk label.
355.It Cm d Op Ar part
356Delete an existing partition (or
357.Ql *
358to delete all partitions).
359If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
360.It Cm e
361Edit drive parameters.
362This option is used to set the following parameters:
363disk type, a descriptive label string, sectors/track,
364tracks/cylinder, sectors/cylinder, number of cylinders,
365total sectors, rpm, and interleave.
366.It Xo
367.Cm g
368.Op Ar d | u
369.Xc
370Set disk geometry based on what the
371.Em disk
372or
373.Em user
374thinks (the
375.Em user
376geometry is simply what the label said before
377.Nm
378made any changes).
379.It Cm i
380Change the disklabel UID, specified as a 16-character hexadecimal string.
381If set to all zeros, a new UID will automatically be allocated when the
382disklabel is written to disk.
383.It Cm l Op Ar unit
384Print the disk label header.
385.It Cm M
386Display this manual page.
387The manual page is piped through the pager specified by the
388.Ev PAGER
389environment variable or 'less' if
390.Ev PAGER
391is not set.
392.It Cm m Op Ar part
393Modify parameters for an existing partition.
394If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
395This option allows
396the user to change the filesystem type, starting offset, partition size,
397and mount point for the specified partition.
398If expert mode is enabled (see
399.Cm X
400below), then block fragment size, block size, and cylinders per group
401can also be modified.
402Note that not all parameters are configurable for
403.Pf non- Bx
404partitions.
405.It Cm n Op Ar part
406Name the mount point for an existing partition.
407If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
408This option is only valid if
409.Nm
410was invoked with the
411.Fl f
412flag.
413.It Cm p Op Ar unit
414Print the current partition list.
415If a
416.Em unit
417is given, the size and offsets are displayed in terms of the
418specified unit.
419If the unit is
420.Sq *
421it is automatically determined by the size of the smallest
422partition.
423.It Cm q
424Quit the editor.
425If any changes have been made, the user will be
426asked whether or not to save the changes to the on-disk label.
427.It Cm R Op Ar part
428Resize a partition in an automatically allocated label,
429compacting unused space between partitions with a higher offset.
430The last partition will be shrunk if necessary.
431Works only for automatically allocated labels with no spoofed partitions.
432.It Cm r
433Recalculate free space.
434This command displays all the free areas on the disk and the total
435number of free sectors.
436.It Cm s Op Ar path
437Save the label to a file in
438.Tn ASCII
439format (suitable for loading via the
440.Fl R
441option).
442If no path is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
443.It Cm U
444Undo all changes made since entering the editor.
445.It Cm u
446Undo
447.Pq or redo
448last change.
449Entering
450.Em u
451once will undo the last change.
452Entering it again will restore the change.
453.It Cm w
454Write the label to disk.
455This option will commit any changes to the on-disk label.
456.It Cm X
457Toggle
458.Dq expert mode .
459By default, some settings are reserved for experts only
460(such as the block and fragment size on ffs partitions).
461.It Cm x
462Exit the editor without saving any changes to the on-disk label.
463.It Cm z
464Zero out the existing partition table and mountpoint information,
465leaving only the 'c' partition.
466The drive parameters are not changed.
467.El
468.Pp
469In the restore form of the command
470.Pq fifth form ,
471the prototype file used to create the label should be in the same format
472as that produced when reading or editing a label.
473Comments are delimited by
474.Ar #
475and newline.
476Any existing bootstrap code will be unaffected.
477.Pp
478The final three forms of
479.Nm
480are used to install bootstrap code on machines where the bootstrap is
481part of the label.
482.Pp
483When installing bootstrap code with the
484.Fl B
485flag, if the boot program name is not explicitly given with
486.Fl b Ar boot1 ,
487a standard boot program
488will be used.
489The standard boot programs are located in
490.Pa /usr/mdec .
491The name of the program is taken from the
492.Dq b0
493parameter of the
494.Xr disktab 5
495entry for the disk if
496.Ar disktype
497was given and its disktab entry exists and includes a b0 field.
498Otherwise, the boot program name is derived from the name of the
499disk.
500These names are of the form
501.Pa basename Ns boot .
502For example,
503.Pa /usr/mdec/sdboot
504if the disk device is
505.Em sd0 .
506.Pp
507The first of the three boot-installation forms is used to install
508bootstrap code without changing the existing label.
509It is essentially a read command with respect to the disk label itself
510and all options are related to the specification of the boot program
511as described previously.
512The final two forms are analogous to the basic write and restore versions
513except that they will install bootstrap code in addition to a new label.
514.Pp
515Note that when a disk has no real
516.Bx
517disklabel, the kernel creates a
518default label so that the disk can be used.
519This default label will include other partitions found on the disk if
520they are supported on your architecture.
521For example, on systems that support
522.Xr fdisk 8
523partitions the default label will also include DOS and Linux partitions.
524However, these entries are not dynamic, they are fixed at the time
525.Nm
526is run.
527That means that subsequent changes that affect
528.Pf non- Ox
529partitions will not be present in the default label,
530though they may be updated by hand.
531To see the default label, run
532.Nm
533with the
534.Fl d
535flag.
536.Nm
537can then be run with the
538.Fl e
539flag and any entries pasted as desired from the default label into the real one.
540.Sh AUTOMATIC DISK ALLOCATION
541The
542.Fl A
543option and the editor command
544.Cm A
545automatically create a disklabel with a set of partitions
546suitable for a majority of
547.Ox
548installations.
549Any existing
550.Ox
551disklabel on the disk is ignored, but native partitions
552that would normally be spoofed are preserved in the disklabel,
553and are not modified during the allocation process.
554.Pp
555Disk size determines the set of partitions which are created.
556Each partition is allocated space between a specified minimum
557and maximum.
558Each partition is allocated its minimum and remaining space
559is split between the partitions up to their maximum allowed space,
560which is a fixed percentage.
561Space left after all partitions have reached their maximum size
562is left unallocated.
563The sizes below are approximations,
564and may vary from architecture to architecture.
565.Pp
566.Sy Disks \*(Gt 7 Gigabytes
567.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
568/		 5% of disk.  80M \(en 1G
569swap		 5% of disk.  80M \(en 2x max physical memory
570/tmp		 8% of disk. 120M \(en 4G
571/var		13% of disk.  80M \(en 2x size of crash dump
572/usr		 5% of disk. 900M \(en 2G
573/usr/X11R6	 3% of disk. 512M \(en 1G
574/usr/local	10% of disk.   2G \(en 10G
575/usr/src	 2% of disk.   1G \(en 2G
576/usr/obj	 4% of disk. 1.3G \(en 2G
577/home		45% of disk.   1G \(en 300G
578.Ed
579.Pp
580.Sy Disks \*(Gt 2 Gigabytes
581.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
582/		 5% of disk. 800M \(en 2G
583swap		10% of disk.  80M \(en 2x max physical memory
584/usr		78% of disk. 900M \(en 3G
585/home		 7% of disk. 256M \(en 2G
586.Ed
587.Pp
588.Sy Disks \*(Gt 700 Megabytes
589.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
590/		95% of disk. 700M \(en 4G
591swap		 5% of disk.   1M \(en 2x max physical memory
592.Ed
593.Sh FILES
594.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
595.It Pa /etc/disktab
596Disk description file.
597.It Pa /usr/mdec/ Ns Em xx Ns boot
598Primary bootstrap.
599.It Pa /usr/mdec/boot Ns Em xx
600Secondary bootstrap.
601.El
602.Sh EXAMPLES
603Display the in-core label for sd0 as obtained via
604.Pa /dev/rsd0c :
605.Pp
606.Dl # disklabel sd0
607.Pp
608Create a label for sd0 based on information for
609.Dq sd2212
610found in
611.Pa /etc/disktab .
612Any existing bootstrap code will be clobbered.
613.Pp
614.Dl # disklabel -w /dev/rsd0c sd2212 foo
615.Pp
616Read the on-disk label from a disk with DUID 3eb7f9da875cb9ee,
617edit it and reinstall in-core as well as on-disk.
618Existing bootstrap code is unaffected.
619.Pp
620.Dl # disklabel -E 3eb7f9da875cb9ee
621.Pp
622Restore the on-disk and in-core label for sd0 from information in
623.Pa mylabel .
624Existing bootstrap code is unaffected.
625.Pp
626.Dl # disklabel -R sd0 mylabel
627.Pp
628Install a new bootstrap on sd0.
629The boot code comes from
630.Pa /usr/mdec/sdboot
631and possibly
632.Pa /usr/mdec/bootsd .
633On-disk and in-core labels are unchanged, but on some systems other
634information may be destroyed.
635Use with care.
636.Pp
637.Dl # disklabel -B sd0
638.Pp
639Install a new label and bootstrap.
640The label is derived from disktab information for
641.Dq sd2212
642and installed both in-core and
643on-disk.
644The bootstrap code comes from the file
645.Pa /usr/mdec/newboot .
646.Pp
647.Dl # disklabel -w -B /dev/rsd0c -b newboot sd2212
648.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
649The kernel device drivers will not allow the size of a disk partition
650to be decreased or the offset of a partition to be changed while
651it is open.
652Some device drivers create a label containing only a
653single large partition if a disk is unlabeled; thus, the label must
654be written to the
655.Sq a
656partition of the disk while it is open.
657This sometimes requires the desired label to be set in two steps,
658the first one creating at least one other partition, and the second
659setting the label on the new partition while shrinking the
660.Sq a
661partition.
662.Pp
663On some machines the bootstrap code may not fit entirely in the
664area allocated for it by some filesystems.
665As a result, it may
666not be possible to have filesystems on some partitions of a
667.Dq bootable
668disk.
669When installing bootstrap code,
670.Nm
671checks for these cases.
672If the installed boot code would overlap a partition of type
673.Dv FS_UNUSED
674it is marked as type
675.Dv FS_BOOT .
676The
677.Xr newfs 8
678utility will disallow creation of filesystems on
679.Dv FS_BOOT
680partitions.
681Conversely, if a partition has a type other than
682.Dv FS_UNUSED
683or
684.Dv FS_BOOT ,
685.Nm
686will not install bootstrap code that overlaps it.
687.Sh SEE ALSO
688.Xr disklabel 5 ,
689.Xr disktab 5 ,
690.Xr scan_ffs 8
691.Sh CAVEATS
692The maximum disk and partition size is 64PB.
693.Pp
694On some machines, such as Sparc and Sparc64, partition tables
695may not exhibit the full functionality described above.
696