Re: Replacing fdisk by cfdisk?
On Fri, Jan 08, 1999 at 01:23:27AM +0100, Vincent Renardias wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Since fdisk has been declared 'obsolete and unmaintained' by its upstream
> maintainer (Andries Brouwer), I'm considering removing it, and putting a
> link pointing to cfdisk instead.
> Does anybody see a technical objection to this? (like some non-i386 arch
> where fdisk works but not cfdisk)
I object. Leave fdisk there (but see bottom of my mail). I see two issues:
cfdisk doesn't let me do the hacks I've done with fdisk. For example, I
can't set the partition data in sectors, only in MegaBytes (or have i
overlooked a feature). But specifying the exact sector is VITAL for rescue
purpose (for example, I deleted my partition table last month, and I was
only able to recover using fdisk. I could have never recovered using
cfdisk).
cfdisk is too sensible to bad partitions.
See:
================================================================
flora:/home/brinkmds# fdisk
Using /dev/hda as default device!
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 4092.
This is larger than 1024, and may cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 4092 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 130 65488+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hda2 2047 4092 1031184 83 Linux native
/dev/hda3 131 2046 965664 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 391 2046 834623+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hda6 131 390 131008 83 Linux native
Command (m for help): v
Warning: partition 2 overlaps partition 5.
124 unallocated sectors
===============================================================
Despite the error, I can use my partitions. However, starting cfdisk:
FATAL ERROR: Bad logical partition
Press any key to exit fdisk
And that was it. Mmmh. Isn't this just a bit bad? (Starting it with the z
option is NOT what I want).
Summary: I think cfdisk is not a replacement for fdisk at all, it is missing
a lot of things (like an expert mode) which are vital for experienced users
who know how to use it. I have serious concerns that removing fdisk will
limit my ability to recover from a broken system. Missing fdisk would be a
release critical bug in my eyes. cfdisk is in design and functionality more
like a DOS tool than like a Unix tool.
I just detected that there is sfdisk, too. Maybe it is a better replacement
for fdisk for advanced users. In this case, I could agree with dropping
fdisk. I do also not object to make a link fdisk->cfdisk, as long as sfdisk
is there, too. Currently, sfdisk is in util-linux, which is not enough. A
professional partition table editor must be on the rescue disk.
Another point: BSD style partitions ARE an issue, because the Hurd works
with both, Linux and BSD style partitions. Dropping support for them would
be bad from this perspective, too.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
"Rhubarb is no Egyptian god." Debian GNU/Linux finger brinkmd@
Marcus Brinkmann http://www.debian.org master.debian.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de for public PGP Key
http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/ PGP Key ID 36E7CD09
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