parted

- partition manipulation program

Synopsis

parted [options] [device [command [options...]...]]

Description

parted is a disk partitioning and partition resizing program. It allows you to create, destroy, resize, move, and copy ext2, linux-swap, FAT, FAT32, and reiserfs partitions. It can create, resize, and move Macintosh HFS partitions, as well as detect jfs, ntfs, ufs, and xfs partitions. It is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, and copying data to new hard disks.

This manual page documents parted briefly. Complete parted documentation is distributed with the package in “GNU Info” format.

parted is implemented with a set of top-level options and a set of subcommands, most of which have their own options and operands. These subcommands are described below. parted has an optional operand:

device

The block device to be used. When none is given, parted uses the first block device it finds.

If you invoke parted without an argument, the program displays a command prompt.

Options

The following options are supported:

-a alignment-type, --align alignment-type

Sets alignment for newly created partitions. Valid alignment types are:

none

Use the minimum alignment allowed by the disk type.

cylinder

Align partitions to cylinders.

minimal

Use minimum alignment as given by the disk topology information. This and the opt value will use layout information provided by the disk to align the logical partition table addresses to actual physical blocks on the disks. The min value is the minimum alignment needed to align the partition properly to physical blocks, which avoids performance degradation.

optimal

Use optimum alignment as given by the disk topology information. This aligns to a multiple of the physical block size in a way that guarantees optimal performance.

-h, --help

Displays a help message.

-l, --list

Lists partition layout on all block devices.

-m, --machine

Displays machine-parseable output.

-s, --script

Never prompts for user intervention.

-v, --version

Displays the version number.

Sub-commands

If you omit a subcommand in a parted command line, the utility issues a command prompt.

check partition

Do a simple check on partition.

cp [source-device] source dest

Copy the source partition's filesystem on source-device (or the current device if no other device was specified) to the dest partition on the current device.

help command

Display general help, or help on a command, if specified.

mkfs partition fs-type

Make a filesystem fs-type on partition. fs-type can be one of fat16, fat32, ext2, linux-wap, or reiserfs.

mklabel label-type

Create a new disk label (partition table) of label-type. label-type should be one of bsd, dvh, gpt, loop, mac, msdos, pc98, or sun.

mkpart part-type [fs-type] start end

Make a part-type partition with file system fs-type (if specified), beginning at start and ending at end (by default, in megabytes). fs-type can be one of fat16, fat32, ext2, HFS, linux-swap, NTFS, reiserfs, or ufs. part-type should be one of primary, logical, or extended.

mkpartfs part-type fs-type start end

Make a part-type partition with file system fs-type, beginning at start and ending at end (by default, in megabytes).

Use of this subcommand is discouraged. Instead use mkpart to create an empty partition, and then use external tools such as mke2fs(8) (part of Linux) to create the filesystem.

move partition start end

Move partition so that it begins at start and ends at end. Note that move never changes the minor number.

name partition name

Set the name of partition to name. This option works only on Mac, PC98, and GPT disk labels. The name can be placed in quotes, if necessary.

print

Display the partition table.

quit

Exit from parted.

rescue start end

Rescue a lost partition that was located somewhere between start and end. If a partition is found, parted will ask if you want to create an entry for it in the partition table.

resize partition start end

Resize the file system on partition so that it begins at start and ends at end (by default, in megabytes).

rm partition

Delete partition.

select device

Choose device as the current device to edit. device should usually be a Solaris or Linux hard disk device, but it can be a partition, software raid device, or an SVM or LVM logical volume if necessary.

set partition flag state

Change the state of the flag on partition to state. Supported flags are: boot, root, swap, hidden, raid, lvm, lba, and palo. state should be either on or off.

unit unit

Set unit as the unit to use when displaying locations and sizes, and for interpreting those given by the user when not suffixed with an explicit unit. unit can be one of s (sectors), B (bytes), kB, MB, GB, TB, % (percentage of device size), cyl (cylinders), chs (cylinders, heads, sectors), or compact (megabytes for input, and a human-friendly form for output).

version

Display version information and a copyright message.

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

See Also

fdisk(1M), mkfs(1M), attributes(5)

The parted program is fully documented in the info(1) format GNU partitioning software manual.

Notes

ext3 filesystem functionality does not currently work. To manage ext3 type filesystems use tools like resize2fs(8) or mke2fs(8) (both part of Linux). Note that the currently supported ext2 filesystem will be deprecated once ext3 support is finalized. Further note that ext3 support will have limited functionality that is yet to be defined. Use tools like resize2fs(8) and mke2fs(8) to manage these types of filesystems.

To manually resize an ext3 filesystem or a partition, use resize2fs(8), fdisk(8), or similar tools. For LVM situations, you will need to use the LVM commands to resize the LVM elements.

Author

This manual page was written by Timshel Knoll for the Debian GNU/Linux system. It is here adapted for the Solaris operating system.