mtools: mpartition

 
 4.20 Mpartition
 ===============
 
 The `mpartition' command is used to create MS-DOS file systems as
 partitions.  This is intended to be used on non-Linux systems, i.e.
 systems where fdisk and easy access to SCSI devices are not available.
 This command only works on drives whose partition variable is set.
 
      `mpartition' `-p' DRIVE
      `mpartition' `-r' DRIVE
      `mpartition' `-I' [`-B' BOOTSECTOR] DRIVE
      `mpartition' `-a' DRIVE
      `mpartition' `-d' DRIVE
      `mpartition' `-c' [`-s' SECTORS] [`-h' HEADS]
      [`-t' CYLINDERS] [`-v' [`-T' TYPE] [`-b'
      BEGIN] [`-l' length] [`-f']
 
    Mpartition supports the following operations:
 
 `p'
      Prints a command line to recreate the partition for the drive.
      Nothing is printed if the partition for the drive is not defined,
      or an inconsistency has been detected.  If verbose (`-v') is also
      set, prints the current partition table.
 
 `r'
      Removes the partition described by DRIVE.
 
 `I'
      Initializes the partition table, and removes all partitions.
 
 `c'
      Creates the partition described by DRIVE.
 
 `a'
      "Activates" the partition, i.e. makes it bootable.  Only one
      partition can be bootable at a time.
 
 `d'
      "Deactivates" the partition, i.e. makes it unbootable.
 
    If no operation is given, the current settings are printed.
 
    For partition creations, the following options are available:
 `s SECTORS'
      The number of sectors per track of the partition (which is also the
      number of sectors per track for the whole drive).
 
 `h HEADS'
      The number of heads of the partition (which is also the number of
      heads for the whole drive).  By default, the geometry information
      (number of sectors and heads) is figured out from neighboring
      partition table entries, or guessed from the size.
 
 `t CYLINDERS'
      The number of cylinders of the partition (not the number of
      cylinders of the whole drive.
 
 `b BEGIN'
      The starting offset of the partition, expressed in sectors. If
      begin is not given, mpartition lets the partition begin at the
      start of the disk (partition number 1), or immediately after the
      end of the previous partition.
 
 `l LENGTH'
      The size (length) of the partition, expressed in sectors.  If end
      is not given, mpartition figures out the size from the number of
      sectors, heads and cylinders.  If these are not given either, it
      gives the partition the biggest possible size, considering disk
      size and start of the next partition.
 
    The following option is available for all operation which modify the
 partition table:
 `f'
      Usually, before writing back any changes to the partition,
      mpartition performs certain consistency checks, such as checking
      for overlaps and proper alignment of the partitions.  If any of
      these checks fails, the partition table is not changes.  The `-f'
      allows you to override these safeguards.
 
    The following options are available for all operations:
 `v'
      Together with `-p' prints the partition table as it is now (no
      change operation), or as it is after it is modified.
 
 `vv'
      If the verbosity flag is given twice, mpartition will print out a
      hexdump of the partition table when reading it from and writing it
      to the device.
 
    The following option is available for partition table initialization:
 `B BOOTSECTOR'
      Reads the template master boot record from file BOOTSECTOR.