From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jul 10 23:58: 1 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from penguin.prod.itd.earthlink.net (penguin.prod.itd.earthlink.net [207.217.120.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3FA0737B605 for ; Mon, 10 Jul 2000 23:57:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cjc@pool0025.cvx21-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net) Received: from pool0025.cvx21-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (pool0304.cvx20-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net [209.179.251.49]) by penguin.prod.itd.earthlink.net (8.9.3-EL_1_3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA19764; Mon, 10 Jul 2000 23:57:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from cjc@localhost) by pool0025.cvx21-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id XAA00623; Mon, 10 Jul 2000 23:46:20 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 23:46:19 -0700 From: "Crist J. Clark" To: Harry Putnam Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: disklabel output confusing or meaningless Message-ID: <20000710234618.C182@dialin-client.earthlink.net> Reply-To: cjclark@alum.mit.edu References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: ; from reader@newsguy.com on Mon, Jul 10, 2000 at 08:16:50PM -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mon, Jul 10, 2000 at 08:16:50PM -0700, Harry Putnam wrote: > > Coming from a linux background I'm used to using fdisk to get > important info such as what device names are attache to what partition. > > Linux fdisk gives a clear precise output, formated in a sensible easy > to read fashion. Usable to write fstab or create mount commands etc. > > FreeBSD's `fdisk' gives a poorly formatted jumble of information most of > which is nearly useless since it is not related to any device names. > Just uses a numbering system, completely different than used by the > OS. It gives information about the Microsoft style partition table in the same format the Microsoft's fdisk does. Since MS-style partitions, a.k.a. slices, are Microsoft artifacts and not native to a UNIX-style system, using the MS nomenclature seems logical to me. Conversion to FreeBSD slices is straightforward, MS partition - 1 = FreeBSD slice > Someone told me to use `disklabel' to get information about disks. That will tell you about partitions on disks. > Using disklabel -r /dev/ad0s4e ( a recently created > `anex' partition) > > I see what appears to be at best confusing and at worst nonsense > information. Hmmm... > [...] snip > 8 partitions: > # size offset fstype [fsize bsize bps/cpg] > c: 3213000 0 unused 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 199) > e: 3213000 0 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 # (Cyl. 0 - 199) > root@satellite / > > > This is one partition but it is reported as 8. Reported as 8? I see two. There are eight possible partitions. > Apparentluy two of those 8 are displayed, but wait, they are both at > the same offset, span the same cylinders and are the same size. That > size is twice what I partitioned. > > Wait again, one is unused and the other is 4.2bsd. > > Hopeless gibberish apparently. No, well documented and precise information. From disklabel(8), All disklabel forms require a disk device name, which should always be the raw "complete" (or "c") partition, for example /dev/rda0c. disklabel understands the abbreviation da0, which it converts internally to /dev/rda0c. The second entry is for a piece of the whole disk and may be used for a filesystem, swap, vinum partition, etc. In this case, there is only one UFS partiton using the whole disk. > Is there an aftermarket or ported or whatever util that gives usabel > readable information about the disk setup? Looks quite readable. RTFM for the details. -- Crist J. Clark cjclark@alum.mit.edu To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message