PARTX(8)                              System Administration                              PARTX(8)



NAME
       partx - tell the Linux kernel about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions

SYNOPSIS
       partx [-a | -d | -s | -u] [-t TYPE] [-n M:N] [-] disk
       partx [-a | -d | -s | -u] [-t TYPE] partition [disk]

DESCRIPTION
       Given  a  device or disk-image, partx tries to parse the partition table and list its con‐
       tents.  It optionally adds or removes partitions.

       The disk argument is optional when a partition argument is provided.  To force scanning  a
       partition  as  if it were a whole disk (for example to list nested subpartitions), use the
       argument "-" (hyphen-minus).  For example:


              partx --show - /dev/sda3

       This will see sda3 as a whole-disk rather than a partition.

       The partx is not an fdisk program – adding and removing partitions  does  not  change  the
       disk, it just tells the kernel about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions.

OPTIONS
       -a, --add
              Add the specified partitions, or read the disk and add all partitions.

       -b, --bytes
              Print the SIZE column in bytes rather than in human-readable format.

       -d, --delete
              Delete the specified partitions or all partitions.

       -u, --update
              Update the specified partitions.

       -g, --noheadings
              Do not print a header line.

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

       -l, --list
              List  the  partitions.  Note that all numbers are in 512-byte sectors.  This output
              format is DEPRECATED in favour of --show.  Do not use it in newly written scripts.

       -o, --output list
              Define the output columns to use  for  --show  and  --raw  output.   If  no  output
              arrangement  is  specified,  then a default set is used.  Use --help to get list of
              all supported columns.  This option cannot be combined  with  --add,  --delete,  or
              --list options.

       -P, --pairs
              Output using key="value" format.

       -n, --nr M:N
              Specify the range of partitions.  For backward compatibility also the format M–N is
              supported.  The range may contain negative numbers, for example --nr :-1 means  the
              last  partition,  and  --nr -2:-1  means  the last two partitions.  Supported range
              specifications are:

                     M      Specifies just one partition (e.g. --nr 3).

                     M:     Specifies lower limit only (e.g. --nr 2:).

                     :N     Specifies upper limit only (e.g. --nr :4).

                     M:N or
                     M–N    Specifies lower and upper limits (e.g. --nr 2:4).

       -r, --raw
              Use the raw output format.

       -s, --show
              List the partitions.  All numbers (except SIZE) are in 512-byte sectors.  The  out‐
              put columns can be rearranged with the --output option.

       -t, --type type
              Specify  the partition table type aix, bsd, dos, gpt, mac, minix, sgi, solaris_x86,
              sun, ultrix, or unixware.

       -v, --verbose
              Verbose mode.

EXAMPLES
       partx --show /dev/sdb3
       partx --show --nr 3 /dev/sdb
       partx --show /dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb
              All three commands list partition 3 of /dev/sdb.

       partx --show - /dev/sdb3
              Lists all subpartitions on /dev/sdb3 (the device is used as whole-disk).

       partx -o START -g --nr 5 /dev/sdb
              Prints the start sector of partition 5 on /dev/sdb without header.

       partx -o SECTORS,SIZE /dev/sda5 /dev/sda
              Lists the length in sectors and human-readable size of partition 5 on /dev/sda.

       partx --add --nr 3:5 /dev/sdd
              Adds all available partitions from 3 to 5 (inclusive) on /dev/sdd.

       partx -d --nr :-1 /dev/sdd
              Removes the last partition on /dev/sdd.

SEE ALSO
       addpart(8), delpart(8), fdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8)

AUTHORS
       Davidlohr Bueso ⟨dave AT gnu.org⟩
       Karel Zak ⟨kzak AT redhat.com⟩

       The original version was written by Andries E. Brouwer ⟨aeb AT cwi.nl⟩.

ENVIRONMENT
       LIBBLKID_DEBUG=0xffff
              enables debug output.

AVAILABILITY
       The partx command is part of the util-linux package and is  available  from  Linux  Kernel
       Archive ⟨ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩.



util-linux                                  June 2012                                    PARTX(8)