cfdisk

CFDISK(8)                    System Administration                   CFDISK(8)

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.

       All disk label changes will remain in memory only, and the disk will be
       unmodified until you decide to write your changes. Be careful before
       using the write command.

       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.

       --lock[=mode]
           Use exclusive BSD lock for device or file it operates. The optional
           argument mode can be yes, no (or 1 and 0) or nonblock. If the mode
           argument is omitted, it defaults to "yes". This option overwrites
           environment variable $LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE. The default is not to use
           any lock at all, but it's recommended to avoid collisions with
           udevd or other tools.

       -r, --read-only
           Forced open in read-only mode.

       -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(8)-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.

       r
           Reduce or enlarge the current partition. cfdisk then prompts you
           for the new size of the partition. The default size is the current
           size. A partition marked as free space or marked as unusable cannot
           be resized.

           Note that reducing the size of a partition might destroy data on
           that partition.

       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(8) sfdisk(8)
           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.

       LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
           use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See --lock for more
           details.

AUTHORS
       Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>

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

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

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
       https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY
       The cfdisk command is part of the util-linux package which can be
       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

util-linux 2.37.2                 2021-08-10                         CFDISK(8)