[linux-lvm] Extend LVM physical volume

[Martin Giese <martingi ifi uio no>]

Hi,

I have a task I'm not sure how to do from the information in the LVM man
pages.

I want to resize a LVM Physical Volume, i.e. a partition that has LVM on
it.  I have some free space on the disk just before the LVM partition.

[ DOS ][ Boot ][***FREE***][ LVM ][Swap]

According to the pvresize man page, I just need to change the place used
by the LVM partition to include the free space, e.g. using fdisk, and
then run pvresize.  However, I read somewhere that this will only work
if the free space comes behind the existing LVM area.  Is that right?
If so, is there a way of moving the filesystem data from the end to the
beginning of the enlarged space?

Making the free space into a new partition doesn't work since I already
have 4 primary partitions.

Any ideas?

Regards,
    Martin