MAC-FDISK(8)	  Apple Disk Partitioning Manual     MAC-FDISK(8)



NAME
       mac-fdisk - Apple partition table editor for Linux

SYNOPSIS
       mac-fdisk [ -h | --help ] [ -v | --version ] [ -l | --list
       device ... ]
       mac-fdisk [ -r | --readonly ] device ...

DESCRIPTION
       mac-fdisk is a command line type program which  partitions
       disks  using  the  standard Apple disk partitioning scheme
       described in "Inside Macintosh: Devices".  The  device  is
       usually one of the following:

	      /dev/sda
	      /dev/sdb
	      /dev/sdc
	      /dev/sdd
	      /dev/sde
	      /dev/sdf
	      /dev/sdg
	      /dev/hda
	      /dev/hdb

       /dev/sda  is the first hard disk on the SCSI bus (i.e. the
       one with the lowest id), /dev/sdb is the second hard disk,
       and  so	on.  The partition is a device name followed by a
       partition number.   The	partition  number  is  the  index
       (starting from one) of the partition map entry in the par
       tition map (and the  partition  map  itself  occupies  the
       first  entry).	For  example,  /dev/sda2 is the partition
       described by the second	entry  in  the	partiton  map  on
       /dev/sda.


OPTIONS
       -v | --version
	      Prints version number of the mac-fdisk program.

       -h | --help
	      Prints  a  list  of available commands for the mac-
	      fdisk program.

       -l | --list
	      Lists  the  partition  tables  for  the	specified
	      device(s).  With no device(s) given, lists all SCSI
	      and IDE devices found in the system.

       -r | --readonly
	      Prevents mac-fdisk from writing to the device.

Editing Partition Tables
       An argument which is simply the name of a device indicates
       that  mac-fdisk	should	edit  the partition table of that
       device. Once started, mac-fdisk	presents  an  interactive
       command prompt to edit the partition table.  The partition
       editing commands are:

	      h    list available commands
	      p    print (list) the current edited partition table status
	      P    print ordered by base address
	      i    initialize the partition map
	      s    change size of partition map
	      b    create new 800K Apple_Bootstrap partition (used by yaboot)
	      c    create new standard Linux type partition
	      C    create new partition, specifying the partition type
	      d    delete a partition
	      r    reorder partition entry
	      w    write the partition table to disk
	      q    quit

       Commands which take arguments prompt for each argument  in
       turn.  You can also type the arguments separated by spaces
       and those prompts will be skipped. The i  and  w  commands
       will  prompt  for confirmation. None of the editing you do
       will actually affect the state of the disk you are  parti
       tioning until the w command is issued. Then the map in its
       edited state will be permanently written to the disk.

       Partitions are always specified by their number, the index
       of  the	partition  entry in the partition map.	Many com
       mands will change the index numbers  of	partitions  which
       follow  the  affected partition; you are encouraged to use
       the p command to print the partition table  as  frequently
       as  necessary.  For SCSI disks, the partition table should
       not contain more than fifteen  partitions  (partition  map
       excluded). IDE disks have a limit of 31 partitions.

       Here  is  a more-or-less typical output for the print com
       mand:

	      Command (? for help): p
	      /dev/sdb
		      # 	       type name	      length   base    ( size )  system
	      /dev/sdb1 Apple_partition_map Apple		  63 @ 1       ( 31.5k)  Partition map
	      /dev/sdb2      Apple_Driver43 Macintosh		  54 @ 64      ( 27.0k)  Driver 4.3
	      /dev/sdb3      Apple_Driver43 Macintosh		  74 @ 118     ( 37.0k)  Driver 4.3
	      /dev/sdb4  Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh		 512 @ 192     (256.0k)  Unknown
	      /dev/sdb5       Apple_Patches Patch Partition	 512 @ 704     (256.0k)  Unknown
	      /dev/sdb6 	  Apple_HFS untitled	     3072000 @ 1216    (  1.5G)  HFS
	      /dev/sdb7 	  Apple_HFS untitled 2	      333026 @ 3073216 (162.6M)  HFS
	      /dev/sdb8 	 Apple_Free Extra		  10 @ 3406242 (  5.0k)  Free space

	      Block size=512, Number of Blocks=3406252
	      DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
	      Drivers-
	      1: @ 64 for 22, type=0x1
	      2: @ 118 for 36, type=0xffff


       The i (initialize) command prompts for  the  size  of  the
       device.	 You  can  just type Return to accept the offered
       size, which should be correct.

       The b command is a shortcut to create the bootstrap parti
       tion  used  on PowerPC NewWorld machines. It is equivalent
       to creating an 800k Apple_Bootstrap type  partition  using
       the  C  command	described below. The sole purpose of this
       partition is to store the boot loader. In multiboot  envi
       ronments,  the  first bootable partition found on the disk
       takes precedence unless a specific boot partition  is  set
       in OpenFirmware, so it's best to create the bootstrap par
       tition  first,  or  move  it  to  a  position  before  any
       Apple_HFS  or  Apple_Boot  partitions  using the r command
       described below. Then you will still able  to  boot  Linux
       after the occasional OpenFirmware reset.

       The  c (create new partition) command has three arguments.
       As mentioned above you can type	the  arguments	following
       the  command,  separated  by spaces, or respond to prompts
       for each argument:

	 1) The base address of the start of the partition.

	    You can specify a number in blocks (most likely read
       ing from the
	    existing partition map) or you can also type a parti
       tion number
	    followed by the letter 'p' to indicate that  the  new
       partition
	    should  take  the  place  of that existing free space
       partition.

	 2) The length of the partition.

	    Again, you can specify a number in blocks or  type	a
       partition
	    number  followed by the letter 'p' to indicate use of
       the entire
	    partition. You can also type  a  number  followed  by
       'k', 'm', or
	    'g'  to indicate the size in kilobytes, megabytes, or
       gigabytes
	    respectively. (These are powers of 1024,  of  course,
       not powers
	    of 1000.)

	 3) The name of the partition.

	    This can be a single word without quotes, or a string
       surrounded
	    by single or double quotes. It is best  to	name  any
       swap partition
	    you  create  `swap';  other partition names are up to
       you. The names
	    are not visible to Linux.

       The C command is identical to  the  c  command,	with  the
       addition  of  a	partition  type  argument after the other
       arguments. The partition type used for Linux swap and data
       partitons  is  APPLE_UNIX_SVR2 (this is the partition type
       created by the c command). Under normal circumstances, you
       should not need to use this command.

       The  d  command	deletes  the  partition number specified,
       replacing that partition with partitionable free space.

       The r (reorder) command allows the index number of  parti
       tions to be changed.  The index numbers are constrained to
       be a contiguous sequence.   mac-fdisk  will  enforce  this
       constraint  by  recalculating  the partition numbers after
       each insert, delete  or	reorder  operation.  OpenFirmware
       looks  for  bootable  partitions in the order specified by
       the index. The partitions are not moved on the disk.  This
       command	takes  two arguments, the number of the partition
       to be moved and the partition number it should become.

       The w command writes the partition map out to  disk.  Note
       that partition maps for disks with mounted partitions can
       not immediately be reinterpreted by the kernel.	In  order
       to  use	the new partition map you must reboot. Within the
       Debian installer system,  mac-fdisk  is	normally  invoked
       before  any  partitions	are mounted, thus a reboot is not
       necessary before continuing the installation.

       The q command terminates the program. If there  was  no	w
       command	issued during the program run, then there will be
       no effect on the disk.


BUGS
       Some people believe there should really be just	one  disk
       partitioning utility.

       mac-fdisk  should  be  able  to create HFS partitions that
       work.  Currently,  if  a  pre-existing  HFS  partition  is
       resized,  MacOS	will  continue	to use the partition size
       stored in the HFS 'superblock' instead of using	the  size
       from  the  partition table (the MacOS volume on the parti
       tion remains valid even though the sizes don't match  any
       more).  This  can  have	undesired side effects especially
       when creating a smaller HFS partition followed  by  a  few
       Linux  partitions  in  place of the previous HFS partition
       space. To avoid this issue, create MacOS partitions within
       MacOS and then don't resize them in mac-fdisk.


SEE ALSO
       fdisk(8), mkswap(8), mkfs(8)

AUTHOR
       Eryk  Vershen  (eryk@apple.com), man page revised by Chris
       Tillman (tillman@azstarnet.com)



Debian			 1 December 2001	     MAC-FDISK(8)