Re: parted -- functionality and documentation

[Aaron Konstam <akonstam Trinity Edu>]

On Sun, Jun 15, 2003 at 04:03:10PM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> 
>   since the online docs are just plain confusing, i thought i'd ask here
> to clarify.
> 
>   in the RH 9 Customization Guide, Chapter 5, "Managing Disk Storage", the
> intro to parted claims that if you want to create or remove a partition,
> "the device can not be in use".  this seems to suggest that the disk must
> be entirely inactive, but this is clearly not true, since i've used parted
> to create a new partition on my current (and only) drive on my system.  
> is this claim wrong, or am i reading it incorrectly?
> 
>   also, until now, when i've used "fdisk" to add a new (logical)
> partition, i've always had to reboot after the fdisk before i could use
> "mkfs", since the reboot apparently allows the new partition table to be
> recognized by the kernel.
> 
>   i noticed recently that you don't have to reboot with parted, which
> suggests that parted somehow registers the new partition table with the
> kernel automatically.  can anyone explain how parted does this when fdisk
> doesn't?
> 
> thanks.
> 
> rday
One thing seems clear. To change the size of a mounted partition that
is in use is suicidal. One question would be if parted is supplied in
the linuc rescue disk. Then the partitions could be changed when they
are not mounted.
-- 
-------------------------------------------
Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
715 Stadium Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200

telephone: (210)-999-7484
email:akonstam trinity edu