bionic (8) cfdisk.8.gz

Provided by: fdisk_2.31.1-0.4ubuntu3.7_amd64 bug

NAME

       cfdisk - display or manipulate a disk partition table

SYNOPSIS

       cfdisk [options] [device]

DESCRIPTION

       cfdisk is a curses-based program for partitioning any block device.  The default device is /dev/sda.

       Note  that  cfdisk provides basic partitioning functionality with a user-friendly interface.  If you need
       advanced features, use fdisk(8) instead.

       Since version 2.25 cfdisk supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk labels, but no  longer  provides  any
       functionality  for  CHS  (Cylinder-Head-Sector)  addressing.  CHS has never been important for Linux, and
       this addressing concept does not make any sense for new devices.

       Since version 2.25 cfdisk also does not provide a  'print'  command  any  more.   This  functionality  is
       provided by the utilities partx(8) and lsblk(8) in a very comfortable and rich way.

       If you want to remove an old partition table from a device, use wipefs(8).

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

       -L, --color[=when]
              Colorize  the  output.   The  optional  argument  when  can be auto, never or always.  If the when
              argument is omitted, it defaults to auto.  The colors can be disabled, for  the  current  built-in
              default see --help output. See also the COLORS section.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -z, --zero
              Start  with an in-memory zeroed partition table.  This option does not zero the partition table on
              the disk; rather, it simply starts the program without reading the existing partition table.  This
              option  allows  you  to  create  a  new  partition table from scratch or from an sfdisk-compatible
              script.

COMMANDS

       The commands for cfdisk can be entered by pressing  the  corresponding  key  (pressing  Enter  after  the
       command is not necessary).  Here is a list of the available commands:

       b      Toggle  the  bootable  flag  of  the  current  partition.  This allows you to select which primary
              partition is bootable on the drive.  This command may not be available  for  all  partition  label
              types.

       d      Delete  the  current partition.  This will convert the current partition into free space and merge
              it with any free space immediately surrounding the current partition.  A partition already  marked
              as free space or marked as unusable cannot be deleted.

       h      Show the help screen.

       n      Create a new partition from free space.  cfdisk then prompts you for the size of the partition you
              want to create.  The default size is equal to the entire  available  free  space  at  the  current
              position.

              The  size may be followed by a multiplicative suffix: KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for
              GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB").

       q      Quit the program.  This will exit the program without writing any data to the disk.

       s      Sort the partitions in ascending start-sector order.  When deleting and adding partitions,  it  is
              likely  that  the  numbering of the partitions will no longer match their order on the disk.  This
              command restores that match.

       t      Change the partition type.  By default, new partitions are created as Linux partitions.

       u      Dump the current in-memory partition table to an sfdisk-compatible script file.

              The script files are compatible between cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk  and  other  libfdisk  applications.
              For more details see sfdisk(8).

              It  is  also  possible  to load an sfdisk-script into cfdisk if there is no partition table on the
              device or when you start cfdisk with the --zero command-line option.

       W      Write the partition table to disk (you must enter an uppercase W).  Since this might destroy  data
              on  the  disk,  you must either confirm or deny the write by entering `yes' or `no'.  If you enter
              `yes', cfdisk will write the partition table to disk and then  tell  the  kernel  to  re-read  the
              partition table from the disk.

              The re-reading of the partition table does not always work.  In such a case you need to inform the
              kernel about any new partitions by using partprobe(8) or partx(8), or by rebooting the system.

       x      Toggle extra information about a partition.

       Up Arrow, Down Arrow
              Move the cursor to the previous or next partition.  If there  are  more  partitions  than  can  be
              displayed  on  a screen, you can display the next (previous) set of partitions by moving down (up)
              at the last (first) partition displayed on the screen.

       Left Arrow, Right Arrow
              Select the preceding or the next menu item.  Hitting Enter will  execute  the  currently  selected
              item.

       All  commands  can  be  entered with either uppercase or lowercase letters (except for Write).  When in a
       submenu or at a prompt, you can hit the Esc key to return to the main menu.

COLORS

       Implicit coloring can be disabled by creating the empty file /etc/terminal-colors.d/cfdisk.disable.

       See terminal-colors.d(5) for more details about colorization configuration.

       cfdisk does not support color customization with a color-scheme file.

ENVIRONMENT

       CFDISK_DEBUG=all
              enables cfdisk debug output.

       LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all
              enables libfdisk debug output.

       LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
              enables libblkid debug output.

       LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
              enables libsmartcols debug output.

       LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG_PADDING=on
              use visible padding characters. Requires enabled LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG.

SEE ALSO

       fdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8), partx(8), sfdisk(8)

AUTHOR

       Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>

       The  current  cfdisk  implementation  is  based  on  the   original   cfdisk   from   Kevin   E.   Martin
       (martin@cs.unc.edu).

AVAILABILITY

       The    cfdisk    command    is    part    of    the    util-linux   package   and   is   available   from
       https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.