.\" Copyright (c) 2002 Marcel Moolenaar .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT .\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, .\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY .\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT .\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF .\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD: src/sbin/gpt/gpt.8,v 1.2 2003/06/02 11:19:23 ru Exp $ .\" .Dd November 30, 2002 .Os .Dt GPT 8 .Sh NAME .Nm gpt .Nd "GUID partition table maintenance utility" .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Ar general_options .Ar command .Op Ar command_options .Ar device ... .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility provides the necessary functionality to manipulate GUID partition tables (GPTs), but see .Sx BUGS below for how and where functionality is missing. The general usage model of the .Nm tool follows that of the .Xr cvs 1 tool. The general options are described in the following paragraph. The remaining paragraphs describe the individual commands with their options. Here we conclude by mentioning that a .Ar device is either a special file corresponding to a disk-like device or a regular file. The command is applied to each .Ar device listed on the command line. .Ss General Options The general options allow the user to change default settings or otherwise change the behaviour that is applicable to all commands. Not all commands use all default settings, so some general options may not have an effect on all commands. .Pp The .Fl p Ar count option allows the user to change the number of partitions the GPT can accomodate. This is used whenever a new GPT is created. By default, the .Nm utility will create space for 128 partitions (or 32 sectors of 512 bytes). .Pp The .Fl r option causes the .Nm utility to open the device for reading only. Currently this option is primarily useful for the .Ic show command, but the intent is to use it to implement dry-run behaviour. .Pp The .Fl v option controls the verbosity level. The level increases with every occurrence of this option. There is no formalized definition of the different levels yet. .Ss Commands .Bl -tag -width indent .\" ==== add ==== .It Xo .Nm .Ic add .Op Fl b Ar number .Op Fl s Ar count .Op Fl t Ar type .Ar device ... .Xc The .Ic add command allows the user to add a new partition to an existing table. By default, it will create an HFS partition covering the first available block of an unused disk space. The command-specific options can be used to control this behaviour. .Pp The .Fl b Ar number option allows the user to specify the starting (beginning) sector number of the partition. The minimum sector number is 1, but has to fall inside an unused region of disk space that is covered by the GPT. .Pp The .Fl s Ar count option allows the user to specify the size of the partition in sectors. The minimum size is 1. .Pp The .Fl t Ar type option allows the user to specify the partition type. The type is given as an UUID, but .Nm has created .Cm efi , hfs and .Cm ufs as aliases for the three most commonly used partition types. .\" ==== create ==== .It Xo .Nm .Ic create .Op Fl p .Ar device ... .Xc The .Ic create command allows the user to create a new (empty) GPT. .Pp The .Fl p option tells .Nm to create only the primary table and not the backup table. This option is only useful for debugging and should not be used otherwise. .\" ==== destroy ==== .It Xo .Nm .Ic destroy .Op Fl r .Ar device ... .Xc The .Ic destroy command allows the user to destroy an existing, possibly not empty GPT. .Pp The .Fl r option instructs .Nm to destroy the table in a way that it can be recovered. .\" ==== show ==== .It Xo .Nm .Ic show .Ar device ... .Xc The .Ic show command displays the current partitioning on the listed devices and gives an overall view of the disk contents. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr fdisk 8 , .Xr newfs 8 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm utility appeared in .Fx 5.0 for ia64. .Sh BUGS The development of the .Nm utility is still work in progress. Many necessary features are missing or partially implemented. In practice this means that the manual page, supposed to describe these features, is farther removed from being complete or useful. As such, missing functionality is not even documented as missing. However, it is believed that the currently present functionality is reliable and stable enough that this tool can be used without bullet-proof footware if one thinks one does not make mistakes. .Pp It is expected that the generic usage model does not change, but it is possible that future versions will not be compatible in the strictest sense of the word. For example, the .Fl p Ar count option may be changed to a command option rather than a generic option. There are only two commands that use it so there is a chance that the natural tendency for people is to use it as a command option. Also, options primarily intended for diagnostic or debug purposes may be removed in future versions. .Pp Another possibility is that the current usage model is accompanied by other interfaces to make the tool usable as a back-end. This all depends on demand and thus feedback.