1CFDISK(8) System Administration CFDISK(8)
2
6 cfdisk - display or manipulate a disk partition table
7
9 cfdisk [options] [device]
10
12 cfdisk is a curses-based program for partitioning any block device.
13 The default device is /dev/sda.
14 Note that cfdisk provides basic partitioning functionality with a user-
16 friendly interface. If you need advanced features, use fdisk(8)
17 instead.
18 Since version 2.25 cfdisk supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk
20 labels, but no longer provides any functionality for CHS (Cylinder-
21 Head-Sector) addressing. CHS has never been important for Linux, and
22 this addressing concept does not make any sense for new devices.
23 Since version 2.25 cfdisk also does not provide a 'print' command any
25 more. This functionality is provided by the utilities partx(8) and
26 lsblk(8) in a very comfortable and rich way.
27 If you want to remove an old partition table from a device, use
29 wipefs(8).
30
33 -h, --help
34 Display help text and exit.
35 -L, --color[=when]
37 Colorize the output. The optional argument when can be auto,
38 never or always. If the when argument is omitted, it defaults
39 to auto. The colors can be disabled, for the current built-in
40 default see --help output. See also the COLORS section.
41 -V, --version
43 Display version information and exit.
44 -z, --zero
46 Start with an in-memory zeroed partition table. This option
47 does not zero the partition table on the disk; rather, it simply
48 starts the program without reading the existing partition table.
49 This option allows you to create a new partition table from
50 scratch or from an sfdisk-compatible script.
51
54 The commands for cfdisk can be entered by pressing the corresponding
55 key (pressing Enter after the command is not necessary). Here is a
56 list of the available commands:
57 b Toggle the bootable flag of the current partition. This allows
59 you to select which primary partition is bootable on the drive.
60 This command may not be available for all partition label types.
61 d Delete the current partition. This will convert the current
63 partition into free space and merge it with any free space imme‐
64 diately surrounding the current partition. A partition already
65 marked as free space or marked as unusable cannot be deleted.
66 h Show the help screen.
68 n Create a new partition from free space. cfdisk then prompts you
70 for the size of the partition you want to create. The default
71 size is equal to the entire available free space at the current
72 position.
73 The size may be followed by a multiplicative suffix: KiB
75 (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB
76 and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K" has the same meaning as
77 "KiB").
78 q Quit the program. This will exit the program without writing
80 any data to the disk.
81 s Sort the partitions in ascending start-sector order. When
83 deleting and adding partitions, it is likely that the numbering
84 of the partitions will no longer match their order on the disk.
85 This command restores that match.
86 t Change the partition type. By default, new partitions are cre‐
88 ated as Linux partitions.
89 u Dump the current in-memory partition table to an sfdisk-compati‐
91 ble script file.
92 The script files are compatible between cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk
94 and other libfdisk applications. For more details see
95 sfdisk(8).
96 It is also possible to load an sfdisk-script into cfdisk if
98 there is no partition table on the device or when you start
99 cfdisk with the --zero command-line option.
100 W Write the partition table to disk (you must enter an uppercase
102 W). Since this might destroy data on the disk, you must either
103 confirm or deny the write by entering `yes' or `no'. If you
104 enter `yes', cfdisk will write the partition table to disk and
105 then tell the kernel to re-read the partition table from the
106 disk.
107 The re-reading of the partition table does not always work. In
109 such a case you need to inform the kernel about any new parti‐
110 tions by using partprobe(8) or partx(8), or by rebooting the
111 system.
112 x Toggle extra information about a partition.
114 Up Arrow, Down Arrow
116 Move the cursor to the previous or next partition. If there are
117 more partitions than can be displayed on a screen, you can dis‐
118 play the next (previous) set of partitions by moving down (up)
119 at the last (first) partition displayed on the screen.
120 Left Arrow, Right Arrow
122 Select the preceding or the next menu item. Hitting Enter will
123 execute the currently selected item.
124 All commands can be entered with either uppercase or lowercase letters
127 (except for Write). When in a submenu or at a prompt, you can hit the
128 Esc key to return to the main menu.
129
132 Implicit coloring can be disabled by creating the empty file /etc/ter‐
133 minal-colors.d/cfdisk.disable.
134 See terminal-colors.d(5) for more details about colorization configura‐
136 tion.
137 cfdisk does not support color customization with a color-scheme file.
139
142 CFDISK_DEBUG=all
143 enables cfdisk debug output.
144 LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all
146 enables libfdisk debug output.
147 LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
149 enables libblkid debug output.
150 LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
152 enables libsmartcols debug output.
153 LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG_PADDING=on
155 use visible padding characters. Requires enabled LIBSMART‐
156 COLS_DEBUG.
157
160 fdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8), partx(8), sfdisk(8)
161
163 Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
164 The current cfdisk implementation is based on the original cfdisk from
166 Kevin E. Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu).
167
170 The cfdisk command is part of the util-linux package and is available
171 from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
172util-linux March 2014 CFDISK(8)