mtools: mpartition

1 
1 4.20 Mpartition
1 ===============
1 
1 The `mpartition' command is used to create MS-DOS file systems as
1 partitions.  This is intended to be used on non-Linux systems, i.e.
1 systems where fdisk and easy access to SCSI devices are not available.
1 This command only works on drives whose partition variable is set.
1 
1      `mpartition' `-p' DRIVE
1      `mpartition' `-r' DRIVE
1      `mpartition' `-I' [`-B' BOOTSECTOR] DRIVE
1      `mpartition' `-a' DRIVE
1      `mpartition' `-d' DRIVE
1      `mpartition' `-c' [`-s' SECTORS] [`-h' HEADS]
1      [`-t' CYLINDERS] [`-v' [`-T' TYPE] [`-b'
1      BEGIN] [`-l' length] [`-f']
1 
1    Mpartition supports the following operations:
1 
1 `p'
1      Prints a command line to recreate the partition for the drive.
1      Nothing is printed if the partition for the drive is not defined,
1      or an inconsistency has been detected.  If verbose (`-v') is also
1      set, prints the current partition table.
1 
1 `r'
1      Removes the partition described by DRIVE.
1 
1 `I'
1      Initializes the partition table, and removes all partitions.
1 
1 `c'
1      Creates the partition described by DRIVE.
1 
1 `a'
1      "Activates" the partition, i.e. makes it bootable.  Only one
1      partition can be bootable at a time.
1 
1 `d'
1      "Deactivates" the partition, i.e. makes it unbootable.
1 
1    If no operation is given, the current settings are printed.
1 
1    For partition creations, the following options are available:
1 `s SECTORS'
1      The number of sectors per track of the partition (which is also the
1      number of sectors per track for the whole drive).
1 
1 `h HEADS'
1      The number of heads of the partition (which is also the number of
1      heads for the whole drive).  By default, the geometry information
1      (number of sectors and heads) is figured out from neighboring
1      partition table entries, or guessed from the size.
1 
1 `t CYLINDERS'
1      The number of cylinders of the partition (not the number of
1      cylinders of the whole drive.
1 
1 `b BEGIN'
1      The starting offset of the partition, expressed in sectors. If
1      begin is not given, mpartition lets the partition begin at the
1      start of the disk (partition number 1), or immediately after the
1      end of the previous partition.
1 
1 `l LENGTH'
1      The size (length) of the partition, expressed in sectors.  If end
1      is not given, mpartition figures out the size from the number of
1      sectors, heads and cylinders.  If these are not given either, it
1      gives the partition the biggest possible size, considering disk
1      size and start of the next partition.
1 
1    The following option is available for all operation which modify the
1 partition table:
1 `f'
1      Usually, before writing back any changes to the partition,
1      mpartition performs certain consistency checks, such as checking
1      for overlaps and proper alignment of the partitions.  If any of
1      these checks fails, the partition table is not changes.  The `-f'
1      allows you to override these safeguards.
1 
1    The following options are available for all operations:
1 `v'
1      Together with `-p' prints the partition table as it is now (no
1      change operation), or as it is after it is modified.
1 
1 `vv'
1      If the verbosity flag is given twice, mpartition will print out a
1      hexdump of the partition table when reading it from and writing it
1      to the device.
1 
1    The following option is available for partition table initialization:
1 `B BOOTSECTOR'
1      Reads the template master boot record from file BOOTSECTOR.
1