NAME

     partition - make a partition table


SYNOPSIS

     partition [-mfn] device [type:]length[+*] ...


DESCRIPTION

     Partition makes a partition table on device using the  types
     and  sizes given.  It may be used in combination with repar-
     tition(8) for automatic installation of MINIX 3.

     You may give up to four type:length[+*]  specifications  for
     the partitions.  You may also specify holes before, between,
     and after the partitions.  A hole differs from  a  partition
     specification by not having a type.

     The first hole is by default 1 sector to make space for  the
     primary  bootstrap and the partition table.  The other holes
     are 0.

     The type field is the type of  the  partitition  in  hexade-
     cimal.  The length field is the partition's size in sectors.
     The + or * may optionally be added to indicate that the par-
     tition must be expanded to contain any leftover space on the
     device or to mark the partition active.

     Instead of a length you may use the word exist  to  indicate
     that  an  existing  partition of the given type must be kept
     from the old partition table.

     Partitions are padded out to cylinder boundaries, except for
     the first one, it starts on track 1.  Some operating systems
     care about this.  MINIX 3 and MS-DOS do not.


OPTIONS

     -m   MINIX 3 only, no need to pad partitions.  This  is  the
          default for subpartition tables.

     -f   Force making a partition table even if  the  device  is
          too small.

     -n   Play-act, don't write the new table, just show what  it
          would look like.


EXAMPLE

     partition /dev/hd0 01:16384 81:40000 81:2880* 06:20000+

     Partitions disk 0 into an 8 Mb DOS partition, 20 Mb MINIX  3
     /usr,  1.44 Mb MINIX 3 / (active), and a DOS partition of at
     least 10 Mb at the end of the disk.  (06:0+ would have  been
     ok too, it's just a sanity check.)


SEE ALSO

     hd(4), part(8), repartition(8).


AUTHOR

     Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)