Signed-off-by: Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) <mtk.manpages@xxxxxxxxx> --- disk-utils/sfdisk.8 | 38 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------- 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/disk-utils/sfdisk.8 b/disk-utils/sfdisk.8 index 6c3f62edd..6c54a1699 100644 --- a/disk-utils/sfdisk.8 +++ b/disk-utils/sfdisk.8 @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ sfdisk \- display or manipulate a disk partition table .SH DESCRIPTION .B sfdisk is a script-oriented tool for partitioning any block device. It -runs in interactive mode if executed on terminal (stdin refers to a terminal). +runs in interactive mode if executed on a terminal (stdin refers to a terminal). Since version 2.26 .B sfdisk @@ -45,11 +45,15 @@ to alignment if the start offset is specified exactly in sectors and partition size relative or by multiplicative suffixes. The recommended way is not to specify start offsets at all and specify -partition size in MiB, GiB (or so). In this case sfdisk align all partitions +partition size in MiB, GiB (or so). In this case +.B sfdisk +aligns all partitions to block-device I/O limits (or when I/O limits are too small then to megabyte boundary to keep disk layout portable). If this default behaviour is unwanted (usually for very small partitions) then specify offsets and sizes in -sectors. In this case sfdisk entirely follows specified numbers without any +sectors. In this case +.B sfdisk +entirely follows specified numbers without any optimization. .sp .B sfdisk @@ -62,11 +66,15 @@ partitions. .B sfdisk uses BLKRRPART (reread partition table) ioctl to make sure that the device is not used by system or other tools (see also \-\-no-reread). It's possible that -this feature or another sfdisk activity races with \fBudevd\fR. The recommended way +this feature or another +.B sfdisk +activity races with \fBudevd\fR. The recommended way how to avoid possible collisions is to use \fB\-\-lock\fR option. The exclusive lock will cause udevd to skip the event handling on the device. .PP -The sfdisk prompt is only a hint for users and a displayed partition number does +The +.B sfdisk +prompt is only a hint for users and a displayed partition number does not mean that the same partition table entry will be created (if -N not specified), especially for tables with gaps. @@ -96,8 +104,10 @@ bootable flag on all unspecified partitions. The special placeholder '\-' may be used instead of the partition numbers to switch off the bootable flag on all partitions. -The activation command is supported for MBR and PMBR only. If GPT label is detected -than sfdisk prints warning and automatically enter PMBR. +The activation command is supported for MBR and PMBR only. +If a GPT label is detected, then +.B sfdisk +prints warning and automatically enters PMBR. If no \fIpartition-number\fR is specified, then list the partitions with an enabled flag. @@ -267,7 +277,9 @@ and the last command reorders partitions to match disk order .TP .B \-\-move\-use\-fsync -Use fsync system call after each write when move data to a new location by +Use the +.BR fsync (2) +system call after each write when moving data to a new location by \fB\-\-move\-data\fR. .TP .BR \-o , " \-\-output " \fIlist @@ -305,7 +317,7 @@ to avoid possible collisions. The argument \fIwhen\fR can be \fBauto\fR, except the old partition-table signatures which are always wiped before create a new partition-table if the argument \fIwhen\fR is not \fBnever\fR. In all cases detected signatures are reported by warning messages before a new -partition table is created. See also +partition table is created. See also the .BR wipefs (8) command. @@ -418,7 +430,9 @@ The partition is given in hex for MBR (DOS) where 0x prefix is optional; a GUID string for GPT; a shortcut or an alias. It's recommended to use two letters for MBR hex codes to avoid collision between deprecated shortcut 'E' and '0E' MBR hex code. For backward -compatibility sfdisk tries to interpret +compatibility +.B sfdisk +tries to interpret .I type as a shortcut as a first possibility in partitioning scripts although on other places (e.g. \fB\-\-part-type command)\fR it tries shortcuts as the last possibility. @@ -601,7 +615,9 @@ The welcome message. .SH ENVIRONMENT .IP SFDISK_DEBUG=all -enables sfdisk debug output. +enablescw +.B sfdisk +debug output. .IP LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all enables libfdisk debug output. .IP LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all -- 2.26.2
