| cfdisk(8) - phpMan
CFDISK(8) System Administration CFDISK(8)
NAME
cfdisk - display or manipulate a disk partition table
SYNOPSIS
cfdisk [options] [device]
DESCRIPTION
cfdisk is a curses/slang-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 func‐
tionality 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; enabled by default. The optional argument when can be auto,
never or always. If the when argument is omitted, it defaults to auto.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-z, --zero
Start with an in-memory zeroed partition table. This option does not zero the par‐
tition table on the disk; rather, it simply starts the program without reading the
existing partition table.
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 parti‐
tion. 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 avail‐
able 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.
t Change the partition type. By default, new partitions are created as Linux parti‐
tions.
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 enter‐
ing `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.
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 par‐
titions by moving down (up) at the last (first) partition displayed on the screen.
All commands can be entered with either uppercase or lowercase letters (except for Write).
When in a submenu or at a prompt for entering a size, 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-col‐
ors.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.
SEE ALSO
fdisk(8), sfdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8), partx(8)
AUTHOR
Karel Zak <kzak AT redhat.com>
The current cfdisk implementation is based on the original cfdisk from Kevin E. Martin
(martin AT cs.edu).
AVAILABILITY
The cfdisk command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.ker‐
nel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
util-linux March 2014 CFDISK(8)
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