Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

fdisk

Synopsis

fdisk [options] [device]

System administration command. fdisk displays information about disk partitions, creates and deletes disk partitions, and changes the active partition. It is possible to assign a different operating system to each of the four possible primary partitions, though only one partition is active at any given time. You can also divide a physical partition into several logical partitions. The minimum recommended size for a Linux system partition is 40 MB. Normally, each device will be /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/hdc, /dev/hdd, and so on. An interactive, menu-driven mode is also available. Note that this command can be destructive if used improperly.

Options

-b sectorsize

Set the size of individual disk sectors. May be 512, 1024, or 2048. Most systems now recognize sector sizes, so this is not necessary.

-l

List partition tables and exit.

-u

Report partition sizes in sectors instead of cylinders.

-s partition

Display the size of partition, unless it is a DOS partition.

-v

Print version number, then exit.

-C cylinders

Specify the number of cylinders on the disk.

-H heads

Specify the number of heads per cylinder.

-S sectors

Specify sectors per track for partitioning.

Commands

a

Toggle a bootable flag on current partition.

b

Edit disklabel of a BSD partition.

c

Toggle DOS compatibility flag.

d

Delete current partition.

l

List all partition types.

m

Main menu.

n

Create a new partition; prompt for more information.

o

Create an empty DOS partition table.

p

Print a list of ...