CFDISK(8)                        System Administration                        CFDISK(8)

NAME
       cfdisk - display or manipulate a disk partition table

SYNOPSIS
       cfdisk [options] [device]

DESCRIPTION
       cfdisk is a curses-based program for partitioning any block device.  The default
       device is /dev/sda.

       Note that cfdisk provides basic partitioning functionality with a  user-friendly
       interface.  If you need advanced features, use fdisk(8) instead.

       Since  version 2.25 cfdisk supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk labels, but
       no longer provides any functionality for CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector)  addressing.
       CHS  has  never  been  important for Linux, and this addressing concept does not
       make any sense for new devices.

       Since version 2.25 cfdisk also does not provide  a  'print'  command  any  more.
       This  functionality is provided by the utilities partx(8) and lsblk(8) in a very
       comfortable and rich way.

       If you want to remove an old partition table from a device, use wipefs(8).

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

       -L, --color[=when]
              Colorize the output.  The optional argument when can be  auto,  never  or
              always.   If the when argument is omitted, it defaults to auto.  The col‐
              ors can be disabled, for the current built-in default see --help  output.
              See also the COLORS section.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -z, --zero
              Start  with  an  in-memory  zeroed partition table.  This option does not
              zero the partition table on the disk; rather, it simply starts  the  pro‐
              gram  without  reading  the existing partition table.  This option allows
              you to create a new partition table from scratch or from  an  sfdisk-com‐
              patible script.

COMMANDS
       The commands for cfdisk can be entered by pressing the corresponding key (press‐
       ing Enter after the command is not necessary).  Here is a list of the  available
       commands:

       b      Toggle  the  bootable  flag of the current partition.  This allows you to
              select which primary partition is bootable on the  drive.   This  command
              may not be available for all partition label types.

       d      Delete  the  current  partition.  This will convert the current partition
              into free space and merge it with any free space immediately  surrounding
              the  current  partition.   A  partition  already  marked as free space or
              marked as unusable cannot be deleted.

       h      Show the help screen.

       n      Create a new partition from free space.  cfdisk then prompts you for  the
              size  of  the partition you want to create.  The default size is equal to
              the entire available free space at the current position.

              The size may be followed by a multiplicative  suffix:  KiB  (=1024),  MiB
              (=1024*1024),  and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is
              optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB").

       q      Quit the program.  This will exit the program without writing any data to
              the disk.

       s      Sort  the  partitions in ascending start-sector order.  When deleting and
              adding partitions, it is likely that the numbering of the partitions will
              no  longer  match  their  order  on the disk.  This command restores that
              match.

       t      Change the partition type.  By default, new  partitions  are  created  as
              Linux partitions.

       u      Dump the current in-memory partition table to an sfdisk-compatible script
              file.

              The script files are compatible between cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk  and  other
              libfdisk applications.  For more details see sfdisk(8).

              It  is  also possible to load an sfdisk-script into cfdisk if there is no
              partition table on the device or when you start cfdisk  with  the  --zero
              command-line option.

       W      Write the partition table to disk (you must enter an uppercase W).  Since
              this might destroy data on the disk, you must either confirm or deny  the
              write  by  entering `yes' or `no'.  If you enter `yes', cfdisk will write
              the partition table to disk and then tell the kernel to re-read the  par‐
              tition table from the disk.

              The  re-reading  of  the partition table does not always work.  In such a
              case you need to inform the kernel about  any  new  partitions  by  using
              partprobe(8) or partx(8), or by rebooting the system.

       x      Toggle extra information about a partition.

       Up Arrow, Down Arrow
              Move  the  cursor  to  the previous or next partition.  If there are more
              partitions than can be displayed on a screen, you can  display  the  next
              (previous) set of partitions by moving down (up) at the last (first) par‐
              tition displayed on the screen.

       Left Arrow, Right Arrow
              Select the preceding or the next menu item.  Hitting Enter  will  execute
              the currently selected item.

       All  commands  can be entered with either uppercase or lowercase letters (except
       for Write).  When in a submenu or at a prompt, you can hit the Esc key to return
       to the main menu.

COLORS
       Implicit  coloring can be disabled by creating the empty file /etc/terminal-col‐
       ors.d/cfdisk.disable.

       See terminal-colors.d(5) for more details about colorization configuration.

       cfdisk does not support color customization with a color-scheme file.

ENVIRONMENT
       CFDISK_DEBUG=all
              enables cfdisk debug output.

       LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all
              enables libfdisk debug output.

       LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
              enables libblkid debug output.

       LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
              enables libsmartcols debug output.

       LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG_PADDING=on
              use visible padding characters. Requires enabled LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG.

SEE ALSO
       fdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8), partx(8), sfdisk(8)

AUTHOR
       Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>

       The current cfdisk implementation is based on the original cfdisk from Kevin  E.
       Martin (martin@cs.unc.edu).

AVAILABILITY
       The  cfdisk  command  is  part  of  the util-linux package and is available from
       ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux                             March 2014                             CFDISK(8)

Usage:
 cfdisk [options] <disk>

Display or manipulate a disk partition table.

Options:
 -L, --color[=<when>]     colorize output (auto, always or never)
                            colors are enabled by default
 -z, --zero               start with zeroed partition table

 -h, --help     display this help and exit
 -V, --version  output version information and exit

For more details see cfdisk(8).