MAC-FDISK(8)	Linux Programmer's Manual	MAC-FDISK(8)


NAME
       mac-fdisk - Apple partition table editor for Linux

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

DESCRIPTION
       mac-fdisk is a menu driven program which partitions  disks
       using   the   standard	Apple  disk  partitioning  scheme
       described in "Inside Macintosh:	Devices".   It	does  not
       support	the  intel/dos	partitioning  scheme supported by
       fdisk.  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

       In Linux /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 fol
       lowed  by a partition number.  The partition number is the
       index (starting from one) of the partition  map	entry  in
       the  partition  map.  For example, /dev/sda2 is the parti
       tion 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	rather lame set of help messages for the
	      mac-fdisk program.

       -l | --list
	      If no names are present then  lists  the	partition
	      tables  for /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd,
	      /dev/sde, /dev/sdf, and /dev/sdg.	Otherwise, lists
	      the partition tables for the specified names.

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

Editing Partition Tables
       An argument which is simply the name of a device indicates



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MAC-FDISK(8)	Linux Programmer's Manual	MAC-FDISK(8)


       that mac-fdisk should edit the  partition  table	of  that
       device.

       The current top level editing commands are:

	      h	command help
	      p	print the partition table
	      P	(print ordered by base address)
	      i	initialize partition map
	      s	change size of partition map
	      c	create new partition
	      C	(create with type also specified)
	      d	delete a partition
	      r	reorder partition entry in map
	      w	write the partition table
	      q	quit without saving changes

       Commands	which take arguments prompt for each argument in
       turn.  You can also type any number of the arguments sepa
       rated  by  spaces  and those prompts will be skipped.  The
       only exception to typeahead are the  confirmation  prompts
       on the i and w commands.	The idea being that if we expect
       you to confirm the decision we shouldn't undermine that by
       allowing you to be precipitate about it.

       Partitions are always specified by their number, which the
       index of the partition entry in the partition  map.   Most
       of  the commands will change the index numbers of all par
       titions after the affected partition.  You are advised  to
       print the table as frequently as necessary.

       Creating	more  than  fifteen  partitions  is not advised.
       There is currently a bug in the some (all?) of the kernels
       which  causes  access  to the whole disk fail if more than
       fifteen partitions are in the map.

       The c (create new partition) command is the only one  with
       complicated  arguments.	The  first  argument is the base
       address (in blocks) of the partition.  Besides a raw  num
       ber,  you  can also specify a partition number followed by
       the letter 'p' to indicate that the first block of the new
       partition  should  be  the same as the first block of that
       existing free  space partition.	The  second  argument  is
       the  length of the partition in blocks.	This can be a raw
       number or can be a partition number followed by the letter
       'p'  to	use the size of that partition or can be a number
       followed by 'k', 'm', or 'g' to indicate the size in kilo
       bytes,  megabytes,  or gigabytes respectively.  (These are
       powers of 1024, of course, not powers of 1000.)	The  last
       argument is the name of the partition.  This can be a sin
       gle word without quotes, or a string surrounded by  single
       or double quotes.

       The  C  command	is  identical  to the c command, with the



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MAC-FDISK(8)	Linux Programmer's Manual	MAC-FDISK(8)


       addition of a partition	type  argument	after  the  other
       arguments.

       The  r (reorder) command allows the index number of parti
       tions to be changed.  The index numbers are constrained to
       be a contiguous sequence.

       The  i  (initalize)  command  prompts  for the size of the
       device.	This was done to get around a bug in  the  kernel
       where it reports the wrong size for the device.

       The w (write) command does write the partition map out, In
       order to use the new partition map you may have to reboot.


BUGS
       Some  people  believe there should really be just one disk
       partitioning utility.
       mac-fdisk should be able to  create  HFS	partitions  that
       work.
       Even more help should be available during user input.

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

AUTHOR
       Eryk Vershen (eryk@apple.com) (pdisk)
       Michael Schmitz (mschmitz@lbl.gov) (mac-fdisk man page)





























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