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) in-
       stead.

       Since version 2.25 cfdisk supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk la-
       bels,  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 ls-
       blk(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 imme-
              diately  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  cre-
              ated as Linux partitions.

       u      Dump the current in-memory partition table to an sfdisk-compati-
              ble 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 en-
              ter  `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  parti-
              tions  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 dis-
              play 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/ter-
       minal-colors.d/cfdisk.disable.

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

       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  LIBSMART-
              COLS_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/.

util-linux                        March 2014                         CFDISK(8)