xref: /openbsd-src/sbin/disklabel/disklabel.8 (revision f2da64fbbbf1b03f09f390ab01267c93dfd77c4c)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: disklabel.8,v 1.119 2016/09/01 12:19:35 jmc 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: September 1 2016 $
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.Op Fl T Ar file
47.Ar disk
48.Nm disklabel
49.Fl w
50.Op Fl Acdnv
51.Op Fl T Ar file
52.Ar disk Ar disktype
53.Op Ar packid
54.Nm disklabel
55.Fl e
56.Op Fl Acdnv
57.Op Fl T Ar file
58.Ar disk
59.Nm disklabel
60.Fl E
61.Op Fl Acdnv
62.Op Fl F Ns | Ns Fl f Ar file
63.Op Fl T Ar file
64.Ar disk
65.Nm disklabel
66.Fl R
67.Op Fl nv
68.Op Fl F Ns | Ns Fl f Ar file
69.Ar disk Ar protofile
70.Sh DESCRIPTION
71The
72.Nm
73utility can be used to install, examine, or modify the label on a disk drive or
74pack.
75The disk label contains information about disk characteristics
76.Pq size, type, etc.
77and the partition layout, stored on the disk itself.
78It is used by the operating system to optimize disk I/O and
79locate the filesystems resident on the disk.
80.Pp
81.Nm
82supports 15 configurable partitions,
83.Sq a
84through
85.Sq p ,
86excluding
87.Sq c .
88The
89.Sq c
90partition describes the entire physical disk, is automatically created
91by the kernel, and cannot be modified or deleted by
92.Nm .
93By convention, the
94.Sq a
95partition of the boot disk is the root partition, and the
96.Sq b
97partition of the boot disk is the swap partition,
98but all other letters can be used in any order for any other
99partitions as desired.
100.Pp
101The options are as follows:
102.Bl -tag -width Ds
103.It Fl A
104Automatically allocate all the disk space in the
105.Ox
106portion of the disk in the recommended manner.
107See
108.Sx AUTOMATIC DISK ALLOCATION ,
109below.
110.It Fl c
111Clear the system's in-core copy of the label and update it based on
112the on-disk label.
113.It Fl d
114Use the
115.Em default
116label.
117This ignores any existing
118.Ox
119disk label on the disk.
120.It Fl E
121Use the built-in command-driven label editor described below.
122.It Fl e
123Edit an existing disk label using the editor specified in the
124.Ev EDITOR
125environment variable, or
126.Xr vi 1
127if none is specified.
128.It Fl F Ar file
129Write entries to
130.Ar file
131in
132.Xr fstab 5
133format for any partitions for which mount point information is known.
134The entries will be written using disklabel UIDs.
135The
136.Fl F
137flag is only valid when used in conjunction with the
138.Fl E
139or
140.Fl R
141flags.
142If
143.Ar file
144already exists, it will be overwritten.
145.It Fl f Ar file
146The same as
147.Fl F
148except that entries will be written using disk device names.
149.It Fl h
150Print partition sizes in human readable format.
151.It Fl n
152Make no permanent changes to the disklabel
153.Pq useful for debugging purposes .
154.It Fl p Ar unit
155Print partition sizes in
156.Ar unit
157instead of sectors.
158Valid units are b(ytes), c(ylinders), k(ilobytes), m(egabytes), g(igabytes)
159and t(erabytes).
160For operations other than displaying a partition the
161.Ql %
162(percent of total) and
163.Ql &
164(percent of free) units are also accepted.
165.It Fl R
166Restore a disk label that was formatted in a prior operation and
167saved in an
168.Tn ASCII
169file.
170.It Fl T Ar file
171Read the template for automatic allocation from
172.Ar file
173instead of using the builtin one.
174See
175.Sx AUTOMATIC DISK ALLOCATION
176below for the format.
177.It Fl t
178Format the label as a
179.Xr disktab 5
180entry.
181.It Fl v
182Print additional information during operation
183.Pq verbose mode .
184.It Fl w
185Write a standard label on the designated drive.
186.It Ar disk
187Specify the
188.Ar disk
189to operate on.
190It can be specified by its full pathname, by an abbreviated disk form,
191or by its disklabel UID.
192In its abbreviated form, the path to the device, the
193.Sq r
194denoting
195.Qq raw device ,
196and the partition letter, can all be omitted.
197For example, the first IDE disk can be specified as either
198.Pa /dev/rwd0c ,
199.Pa /dev/wd0c ,
200or
201.Ar wd0 .
202.It Ar disktype
203Specify a
204.Ar disktype
205entry from the
206.Xr disktab 5
207database.
208.It Ar packid
209Specify a pack identification string for the device
210.Pq see below .
211.It Ar protofile
212Used with the restore option
213.Pq Fl R
214to specify a file to read an ASCII label from.
215.El
216.Pp
217The first form of the command
218.Pq read
219is used to examine the label on the named disk drive.
220It will display all of the parameters associated with the drive
221and its partition layout.
222The kernel's in-core copy of the label is displayed; if
223the disk has no label, or the partition types on the disk are
224incorrect, the kernel may have constructed or modified the label.
225.Pp
226The second form of the command
227.Pq write
228is used to write a standard label on the designated drive.
229The drive parameters and partitions are taken from that file.
230If different disks of the same physical type are
231to have different partitions, it will be necessary to have separate
232disktab entries describing each, or to edit the label after
233installation as described below.
234The optional argument is a pack
235identification string, up to 16 characters long.
236The pack ID must be quoted if it contains blanks.
237The existing label will be updated via the in-core
238copy and any bootstrap code will be unaffected.
239.Pp
240In the third form of the command
241.Pq edit ,
242the label is read from the in-core kernel copy
243and then supplied to an editor for changes.
244If no editor is specified in an
245.Ev EDITOR
246environment variable,
247.Xr vi 1
248is used.
249When the editor terminates, the formatted label is reread and
250used to rewrite the disk label.
251Existing bootstrap code is unchanged.
252.Pp
253The built-in label editor
254.Pq fourth form
255provides a simple interactive label editor.
256Some commands or prompts take an optional unit.
257Available units are
258.Sq b
259for bytes,
260.Sq c
261for cylinders,
262.Sq k
263for kilobytes,
264.Sq m
265for megabytes,
266.Sq g
267for gigabytes,
268and
269.Sq t
270for terabytes.
271If no unit is given, the default is to use sectors
272(usually 512 bytes).
273Quantities will be rounded to the nearest
274cylinder when units are specified for sizes
275.Pq or offsets .
276Commands may be aborted by entering
277.Ql ^D
278.Pq Control-D .
279Entering
280.Ql ^D
281at the main
282.Ql >
283prompt will exit the editor.
284At prompts that request a size,
285.Ql *
286may be entered to indicate the rest of the available space.
287The editor commands are as follows:
288.Bl -tag -width "p [unit] "
289.It Cm \&? | h
290Display help message with all available commands.
291There is also
292.Pq simple
293context-sensitive help available at most prompts.
294.It Cm A
295Allocate all the disk space in the recommended manner.
296See
297.Sx AUTOMATIC DISK ALLOCATION ,
298below.
299.It Cm a Op Ar part
300Add new partition.
301This option adds a new partition to the disk label.
302If no partition letter is specified
303.Pq a\-p ,
304the user will be prompted for one.
305.It Cm b
306Set
307.Ox
308disk boundaries.
309This option tells
310.Nm
311which parts of the disk it is allowed to modify.
312This option is probably only useful for ports with
313.Xr fdisk 8
314partition tables where the ending sector in the MBR is incorrect.
315The user may enter
316.Ql *
317at the
318.Dq Size
319prompt to indicate the entire size of the disk
320.Pq minus the starting sector .
321This is useful for disks where the
322fdisk partition table is incapable of storing the real size.
323Note: data may become corrupted if boundaries are extended such
324that they overlap with other resident operating systems.
325.It Cm c Op Ar part
326Change the size of an existing partition.
327If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
328The new size may be
329in terms of the aforementioned units and may also be prefixed with
330.Ql +
331or
332.Ql -
333to change the size by a relative amount.
334.It Cm D
335Sets the disk label to the default values as reported by the kernel.
336This simulates the case where there is no disk label.
337.It Cm d Op Ar part
338Delete an existing partition (or
339.Ql *
340to delete all partitions).
341If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
342.It Cm e
343Edit drive parameters.
344This option is used to set the following parameters:
345disk type, a descriptive label string, sectors/track,
346tracks/cylinder, sectors/cylinder, number of cylinders,
347total sectors, rpm, and interleave.
348.It Xo
349.Cm g
350.Op Ar d | u
351.Xc
352Set disk geometry based on what the
353.Em disk
354or
355.Em user
356thinks (the
357.Em user
358geometry is simply what the label said before
359.Nm
360made any changes).
361.It Cm i
362Change the disklabel UID, specified as a 16-character hexadecimal string.
363If set to all zeros, a new UID will automatically be allocated when the
364disklabel is written to disk.
365.It Cm l Op Ar unit
366Print the disk label header.
367.It Cm M
368Display this manual page.
369The manual page is piped through the pager specified by the
370.Ev PAGER
371environment variable or 'less' if
372.Ev PAGER
373is not set.
374.It Cm m Op Ar part
375Modify parameters for an existing partition.
376If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
377This option allows
378the user to change the filesystem type, starting offset, partition size,
379and mount point for the specified partition.
380If expert mode is enabled (see
381.Cm X
382below), then block fragment size, block size, and cylinders per group
383can also be modified.
384Note that not all parameters are configurable for
385.Pf non- Bx
386partitions.
387.It Cm n Op Ar part
388Name the mount point for an existing partition.
389If no partition is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
390This option is only valid if
391.Nm
392was invoked with the
393.Fl f
394flag.
395.It Cm p Op Ar unit
396Print the current partition list.
397If a
398.Em unit
399is given, the size and offsets are displayed in terms of the
400specified unit.
401If the unit is
402.Sq *
403it is automatically determined by the size of the smallest
404partition.
405.It Cm q
406Quit the editor.
407If any changes have been made, the user will be
408asked whether or not to save the changes to the on-disk label.
409.It Cm R Op Ar part
410Resize a partition in an automatically allocated label,
411compacting unused space between partitions with a higher offset.
412The last partition will be shrunk if necessary.
413Works only for automatically allocated labels with no spoofed partitions.
414.It Cm r
415Recalculate free space.
416This command displays all the free areas on the disk and the total
417number of free sectors.
418.It Cm s Op Ar path
419Save the label to a file in
420.Tn ASCII
421format (suitable for loading via the
422.Fl R
423option).
424If no path is specified, the user will be prompted for one.
425.It Cm U
426Undo all changes made since entering the editor.
427.It Cm u
428Undo
429.Pq or redo
430last change.
431Entering
432.Em u
433once will undo the last change.
434Entering it again will restore the change.
435.It Cm w
436Write the label to disk.
437This option will commit any changes to the on-disk label.
438.It Cm X
439Toggle
440.Dq expert mode .
441By default, some settings are reserved for experts only
442(such as the block and fragment size on ffs partitions).
443.It Cm x
444Exit the editor without saving any changes to the on-disk label.
445.It Cm z
446Zero out the existing partition table and mountpoint information,
447leaving only the 'c' partition.
448The drive parameters are not changed.
449.El
450.Pp
451In the restore form of the command
452.Pq fifth form ,
453the prototype file used to create the label should be in the same format
454as that produced when reading or editing a label.
455Comments are delimited by
456.Ar #
457and newline.
458Any existing bootstrap code will be unaffected.
459.Pp
460The final three forms of
461.Nm
462are used to install bootstrap code on machines where the bootstrap is
463part of the label.
464.Pp
465Note that when a disk has no real
466.Bx
467disklabel, the kernel creates a
468default label so that the disk can be used.
469This default label will include other partitions found on the disk if
470they are supported on your architecture.
471For example, on systems that support
472.Xr fdisk 8
473partitions the default label will also include DOS and Linux partitions.
474However, these entries are not dynamic, they are fixed at the time
475.Nm
476is run.
477That means that subsequent changes that affect
478.Pf non- Ox
479partitions will not be present in the default label,
480though they may be updated by hand.
481To see the default label, run
482.Nm
483with the
484.Fl d
485flag.
486.Nm
487can then be run with the
488.Fl e
489flag and any entries pasted as desired from the default label into the real one.
490.Sh AUTOMATIC DISK ALLOCATION
491The
492.Fl A
493option and the editor command
494.Cm A
495automatically create a disklabel with a set of partitions
496suitable for a majority of
497.Ox
498installations.
499Any existing
500.Ox
501disklabel on the disk is ignored, but native partitions
502that would normally be spoofed are preserved in the disklabel,
503and are not modified during the allocation process.
504.Pp
505Disk size determines the set of partitions which are created.
506Each partition is allocated space between a specified minimum
507and maximum.
508Initially, each partition is allocated its minimum space;
509remaining space is split between the partitions according to the
510given percentages,
511up to their maximum allowed space.
512Space left after all partitions have reached their maximum size
513is left unallocated.
514The sizes below are approximations,
515and may vary from architecture to architecture.
516.Pp
517.Sy Disks \*(Gt 7 Gigabytes
518.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
519/		 5% of disk.  80M \(en 1G
520swap		 5% of disk.  80M \(en 2x max physical memory
521/tmp		 8% of disk. 120M \(en 4G
522/var		13% of disk.  80M \(en 2x size of crash dump
523/usr		 5% of disk. 900M \(en 2G
524/usr/X11R6	 3% of disk. 512M \(en 1G
525/usr/local	10% of disk.   2G \(en 10G
526/usr/src	 2% of disk.   1G \(en 2G
527/usr/obj	 4% of disk. 1.3G \(en 2G
528/home		45% of disk.   1G \(en 300G
529.Ed
530.Pp
531.Sy Disks \*(Gt 2 Gigabytes
532.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
533/		 5% of disk. 800M \(en 2G
534swap		10% of disk.  80M \(en 2x max physical memory
535/usr		78% of disk. 900M \(en 3G
536/home		 7% of disk. 256M \(en 2G
537.Ed
538.Pp
539.Sy Disks \*(Gt 700 Megabytes
540.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
541/		95% of disk. 700M \(en 4G
542swap		 5% of disk.   1M \(en 2x max physical memory
543.Ed
544.Pp
545A template for the automatic allocation can be passed to disklabel using
546the
547.Fl T
548option.
549The template consists of one line per partition, with each line giving
550mountpoint, min-max size range, and percentage of disk, space-separated.
551Max can be unlimited by specifying '*'.
552If only mountpoint and min size are given, the partition is created with that
553exact size.
554.Pp
555.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
556/		250M
557swap		80-256M	10%
558/tmp		120M-4G	8%
559/var		80M-4G	13%
560/usr		900M-2G	5%
561/usr/X11R6	512M-1G	3%
562/usr/local	2G-10G	10%
563/usr/src	1-2G	2%
564/usr/obj	1.3G-2G	4%
565/home		1G-*	45%
566.Ed
567.Sh FILES
568.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
569.It Pa /etc/disktab
570Disk description file.
571.It Pa /usr/mdec/ Ns Em xx Ns boot
572Primary bootstrap.
573.It Pa /usr/mdec/boot Ns Em xx
574Secondary bootstrap.
575.El
576.Sh EXAMPLES
577Display the in-core label for sd0 as obtained via
578.Pa /dev/rsd0c :
579.Pp
580.Dl # disklabel sd0
581.Pp
582Create a label for sd0 based on information for
583.Dq sd2212
584found in
585.Pa /etc/disktab .
586Any existing bootstrap code will be clobbered.
587.Pp
588.Dl # disklabel -w /dev/rsd0c sd2212 foo
589.Pp
590Read the on-disk label from a disk with DUID 3eb7f9da875cb9ee,
591edit it and reinstall in-core as well as on-disk.
592Existing bootstrap code is unaffected.
593.Pp
594.Dl # disklabel -E 3eb7f9da875cb9ee
595.Pp
596Restore the on-disk and in-core label for sd0 from information in
597.Pa mylabel .
598Existing bootstrap code is unaffected.
599.Pp
600.Dl # disklabel -R sd0 mylabel
601.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
602The kernel device drivers will not allow the size of a disk partition
603to be decreased or the offset of a partition to be changed while
604it is open.
605Some device drivers create a label containing only a
606single large partition if a disk is unlabeled; thus, the label must
607be written to the
608.Sq a
609partition of the disk while it is open.
610This sometimes requires the desired label to be set in two steps,
611the first one creating at least one other partition, and the second
612setting the label on the new partition while shrinking the
613.Sq a
614partition.
615.Pp
616On some machines the bootstrap code may not fit entirely in the
617area allocated for it by some filesystems.
618As a result, it may
619not be possible to have filesystems on some partitions of a
620.Dq bootable
621disk.
622When installing bootstrap code,
623.Nm
624checks for these cases.
625If the installed boot code would overlap a partition of type
626.Dv FS_UNUSED
627it is marked as type
628.Dv FS_BOOT .
629The
630.Xr newfs 8
631utility will disallow creation of filesystems on
632.Dv FS_BOOT
633partitions.
634Conversely, if a partition has a type other than
635.Dv FS_UNUSED
636or
637.Dv FS_BOOT ,
638.Nm
639will not install bootstrap code that overlaps it.
640.Sh SEE ALSO
641.Xr disklabel 5 ,
642.Xr disktab 5 ,
643.Xr scan_ffs 8
644.Sh CAVEATS
645The maximum disk and partition size is 64PB.
646.Pp
647On some machines, such as Sparc64, partition tables
648may not exhibit the full functionality described above.
649