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