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disklabel(8) System Manager's Manual disklabel(8) NAME disklabel - Reads and writes disk pack label SYNOPSIS /sbin/disklabel [-r] disk /sbin/disklabel -p disk [disk_type] /sbin/disklabel -w [-r] [-t ufs | advfs] disk disktype [packid] [primary-boot secondary-boot] /sbin/disklabel -wrn disk disktype [packid] /sbin/disklabel -e [-r] disk /sbin/disklabel -R [-r] [-t ufs | advfs] disk protofile [disktype | primary-boot secondary-boot] /sbin/disklabel [-N | -W] disk /sbin/disklabel -z disk /sbin/disklabel -s partition fstype /sbin/disklabel [-r] -f image_file /sbin/disklabel [-w] -f image_file [-t cdfs|ufs|advfs] [packid] primary_boot secondary_boot /sbin/disklabel -e -f image_file FLAGS Edits an existing label. Specifies the type of image file for opera- tions. The default image file type is cdfs, to indicate that the image file was created in ISO 9660 Rock Ridge format. The cdfs default ap- plies only when the -f flag is used. Writes an initial label to a disk which will then be labeled, but non-bootable. Disallows writing of the pack label area on the specified disk. (See -W.) Prints label parame- ters for the specified disk to stdout. Reads or writes the label di- rectly to or from the disk, rather than operating on the in-memory copy of the label. Restores a disk label that was formatted in a prior op- eration and saved in an ASCII file. Sets the file system type (fstype) field in the disk label. Specifies which type of the local file system the boot blocks describe, UFS, AdvFS, or CDFS. Writes a standard label on the designated drive. Allows writing of the pack label area on the specified disk. (See -N.) Zeros (clears) the disk label. DESCRIPTION The disklabel command can be used to install, examine, or modify the label on a disk drive or pack. The disk label contains information about the disk, such as type, physical parameters, and partitioning. The disklabel command can be used to change the drive identification or the disk partitions on the drive, or to replace a damaged label or bootstrap. The disk label is located on one of the first sectors of each disk (usually block 0). On machines that require a block-0 boot- strap, the label is inserted into the bootstrap program. The disk argument specifies the disk (for example, rz0 or /dev/rrz0a). If you do not specify the disk partition, disklabel uses the first par- tition that has a zero offset. Typically, this is the a or c partition. The disktype argument specifies the type of disk. The /etc/disktab file contains a list of disk types and their parameters and partitions. If you want disks that are the same type to have different partition parameters, you must have separate /etc/disktab file entries describing each disk, or you must edit the disks' labels after installation with the -e flag. If your disk type is not specified in the /etc/disktab file, disklabel uses the default partition information in the driver. There are two copies of a disk label, one located on the disk and one located in system memory. Because it is faster to access system memory than to perform I/O, when a system recognizes a disk, it copies the disk label into memory. The -r option causes the label to be read from or written to the disk directly, instead of reading the system's in-memory copy of the label. When writing, the in-memory copy is also updated if the parameters are valid. The -r option must be used if there is no label already on the disk. This option may allow a label to be installed on a disk without kernel support for a label, such as when labels are first installed on a system. The first form of the command is used to examine the label on the spec- ified disk drive. It displays all of the parameters associated with the drive and its partition layout. If the disk has no label or if the partition types on the disk are incorrect, the kernel may have con- structed or modified the label. If you specify the -r flag, the label from the raw disk is displayed instead of the in-memory label. The -p option prints the disklabel parameters from /etc/disktab for a specified disk to stdout. The type of disk is obtained directly by querying the disk special file. If there is no matching entry in /etc/disktab for the obtained type, disklabel uses the default parti- tion information in the driver. If the optional disktype parameter is specified, it takes precedence over the disk special file, and the in- formation will be obtained from /etc/disktab if a matching entry is found for the specified type. If no matching entry is found, the de- fault partition information from the driver will be used as described above. The second form of the command, with the -w flag, writes a standard la- bel on the designated drive. You must specify the disk and the disk type as described in the /etc/disktab file. The optional packid argu- ment specifies a pack identification string that contains up to 16 characters. Use quotes around the packid argument if it contains blanks. If you specify the -r flag with the -w flag, the disk sectors that contain the label and bootstrap are written directly; otherwise the existing label is updated in place without modifying the bootstrap. In either case, the kernel's in-memory label is replaced. You can specify alternate versions of the bootstrap files, using the primary- boot and secondary-boot arguments. If an alternate bootstrap is not specified, the standard bootstrap is used. If you specify the -f flag with the -w flag, the disk label is written to the specified image file. The default bootstrap programs are for the CDFS file system. You can use alternative bootstrap programs by specifying the -t flag and indicating the file system type in it. Al- ternatively, you can specify primary and secondary boot arguments. The bootstrap programs are located in /mdec. The names of the boot- strap programs can be specified in the /etc/disktab file, but if they are not specified, the default names use either the basenameboot syntax for the primary (block 0) bootstrap or the bootbasename syntax for the secondary (blocks 1-15 for UFS and blocks 64-95 for AdvFS) bootstrap, where the basename is the type of disk, such as, rz or re. For exam- ple, the names are /mdec/rzboot and /mdec/bootrz for a UFS rz-type disk. If you specify the -t advfs option, the default names use either the basenameboot.advfs syntax for the primary bootstrap or the boot- basename.advfs syntax for the secondary bootstrap (blocks 64-95), for example, /mdec/rzboot.advfs and /mdec/bootrz.advfs. To write an initial label to a non-bootable disk, use the -n option with the -wr options. When using this form of the command, specify the disk and disktype. You can also specify the optional packid. You can edit an existing disk label, using the -e flag. The label is read from the in-memory kernel copy, or directly from the disk if the -r flag is specified. The label is formatted and then sent to an edi- tor. If no editor is specified with the EDITOR environment variable, the vi editor is used. If vi is not available, the ed editor is used. Note that if an unexpected error occurs during the ed editing session, the following message will appear: Warning, edit session exited abnor- mally! You should re-edit the disk label to ensure that you made the modifica- tions. When the editor terminates, the formatted label is reread and used to rewrite the disk label. If you specify the -R flag, disklabel restores a disk label that was previously formatted and saved in an ASCII file. The protofile argu- ment specifies the prototype file that is used to create the label. This file should be in the same format that is produced when reading or editing a label. Comments are indicated with number signs (#) and new- line. If you also specify the -r option, a block-0 bootstrap is in- stalled on the machines that use that type of bootstrap; either the disk type or the names of the bootstrap files must be specified on such machines. The -N flag does not allow you to write to the disk pack label area. The -W flag allows you to write to the disk pack label area. The label sector is always write-protected when the drive is first opened; the write-enable flag set by -W persists only until all partitions on the drive are closed. Note that if you replace an existing label with a new label, the exist- ing partition information will be copied to the new label if the new label's partition is marked unused. This may cause disklabel to fail and can be avoided by first using the -z option to clear the disk la- bel. You can use the -s option to change the file system type (fstype) in the disk label. Specify the partition whose type you are changing and the new fstype. If a partition no longer contains valid file system data, use the -s option to set the fstype to unused. Or, if the fstype is unused, but the partition does contain valid data, use the -s option to set a valid fstype. This prevents inadvertent loss of data, as ap- plications like newfs, mkfdmn, voldisk, and swapon check the fstype field in the disk label for the partition usage. You can set the fstype field to be any of the following: Available for use. Used as swap space. Used by a UNIX file system. Used by an Ad- vFS file system. Used by a CDFS file system. Used by an LSM nopriv disk. Used for an LSM private region. Used for an LSM public region. Used by an LSM simple disk. Used by a database. Used for raw data. NOTES The kernel device drivers do not allow the size of a disk partition to be decreased or the offset of a partition to be changed while it is open. Some device drivers create a label containing only a single large partition if a disk is unlabeled; thus the label must be written to the a or c partition of the disk while it is open. This sometimes requires the desired label to be set in two steps, the first one creat- ing at least one other partition, and the second setting the label on the new partition while shrinking the a partition. The kernel does not allow file system information to be set un- used for open partitions. For example, if you want to set the a partition to unused, you must write the label using a different partition (such as the c partition). For example: # disklabel -w /dev/rrz0c rz56 If a file system exists for an open partition, the existing file system information is copied to the new label. This preserves the existing information without returning an error. When using LSM, if you try to recover a replaced mirror disk and the disk has been replaced with a new disk, disklabel fails with the fol- lowing error, when attempting to write the new label: disklabel: ioctl DIOCSDINFO: open partition would move or shrink Remove the disk from LSM before attempting to write the new disklabel: # voldisk rm rz8 # disklabel -wr rz8 rz28 EXAMPLES The following example clears the existing label, writes a new label, and then displays the current label: # disklabel -z rz6 # disklabel -rw rz6 rzw7s # disklabel -r rz6 # /dev/rrz6a: type: SCSI disk: rzw7s la- bel: flags: bytes/sector: 512 sectors/track: 71 tracks/cylinder: 15 sectors/cylinder: 1065 cylinders: 1900 sectors/unit: 2023500 rpm: 3600 interleave: 1 trackskew: 0 cylinderskew: 0 headswitch: 0 # milliseconds track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds drivedata: 0 8 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 131072 0 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 0 - 123*) b: 262144 131072 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 123*- 369*) c: 2023500 0 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 0 - 1899) d: 163840 1703936 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 1599*- 1753*) e: 32768 1867776 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 1753*- 1784*) f: 122956 1900544 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 1784*- 1899*) g: 1310720 393216 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 369*- 1599*) h: 319564 1703936 unused 1024 8192 # (Cyl. 1599*- 1899*) Note that the asterisks in the cpg column indicate that the beginning or ending cylinders do not fall exactly on a block boundary. The following example marks partition rz4c for use by a database: # disklabel -s rz4c database The following example marks partition rz4c as unused, which means it is available for use. # disklabel -s rz4c unused The following example shows how a disk label is written to a a CDFS im- age file and then read from it: # disklabel -w -f system.image # disklabel -f system.image # system.image: type: unknown disk: CDROM label: flags: removeable bytes/sector: 512 sectors/track: 1728 tracks/cylinder: 1 sectors/cylinder: 1 cylinders: 1 sectors/unit: 1728 rpm: 300 interleave: 1 trackskew: 0 cylinderskew: 0 headswitch: 0 # milliseconds track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds drivedata: 0 3 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 1728 0 CDFS # (Cyl. 0 - 1727) b: 0 0 unused 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - -1) c: 1728 0 unused 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 1727) # FILES Contains information about disks and drives. Primary bootstrap pro- grams. Secondary bootstrap programs. RELATED INFORMATION Files: disklabel(4), disktab(4), rz(7), ra(7) Functions: check_usage(3), set_usage(3) delim off disklabel(8)