Manual: partx

PARTX(8)					    System Administration					    PARTX(8)

NAME
       partx - tell the kernel about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions

SYNOPSIS
       partx [-a|-d|-P|-r|-s|-u] [-t type] [-n M:_N_] [-] disk

       partx [-a|-d|-P|-r|-s|-u] [-t type] partition [disk]

DESCRIPTION
       Given a device or disk-image, partx tries to parse the partition table and list its contents. It can also tell the
       kernel to add or remove partitions from its bookkeeping.

       The disk argument is optional when a partition argument is provided. To force scanning a partition as if it were a
       whole disk (for example to list nested subpartitions), use the argument "-" (hyphen-minus). For example:

	  partx --show - /dev/sda3

       This will see sda3 as a whole-disk rather than as a partition.

       partx is not an fdisk program - adding and removing partitions does not change the disk, it just tells the kernel
       about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions.

OPTIONS
       -a, --add
	   Add the specified partitions, or read the disk and add all partitions.

       -b, --bytes
	   Print the sizes in bytes rather than in a human-readable format.

	   By default, the unit, sizes are expressed in, is byte, and unit prefixes are in power of 2^10 (1024).
	   Abbreviations of symbols are exhibited truncated in order to reach a better readability, by exhibiting alone the
	   first letter of them; examples: "1 KiB" and "1 MiB" are respectively exhibited as "1 K" and "1 M", then omitting
	   on purpose the mention "iB", which is part of these abbreviations.

       -d, --delete
	   Delete the specified partitions or all partitions. It is not error to remove non-existing partitions, so this
	   option is possible to use together with large --nr ranges without care about the current partitions set on the
	   device.

       -g, --noheadings
	   Do not print a header line with --show or --raw.

       -l, --list
	   List the partitions. Note that all numbers are in 512-byte sectors. This output format is DEPRECATED in favour of
	   --show. Do not use it in newly written scripts.

       -n, --nr M:N
	   Specify the range of partitions. For backward compatibility also the format M-N is supported. The range may
	   contain negative numbers, for example --nr -1:-1 means the last partition, and --nr -2:-1 means the last two
	   partitions. Supported range specifications are:

	   M
	       Specifies just one partition (e.g. --nr 3).

	   M:
	       Specifies the lower limit only (e.g. --nr 2:).

	   :N
	       Specifies the upper limit only (e.g. --nr :4).

	   M:N
	       Specifies the lower and upper limits (e.g. --nr 2:4).

       -o, --output list
	   Define the output columns to use for --show, --pairs and --raw output. If no output arrangement is specified,
	   then a default set is used. Use --help to get list of all supported columns. This option cannot be combined with
	   the --add, --delete, --update or --list options.

       --output-all
	   Output all available columns.

       -P, --pairs
	   List the partitions using the KEY="value" format.

       -r, --raw
	   List the partitions using the raw output format.

       -s, --show
	   List the partitions. The output columns can be selected and rearranged with the --output option. All numbers
	   (except SIZE) are in 512-byte sectors.

       -t, --type type
	   Specify the partition table type.

       --list-types
	   List supported partition types and exit.

       -u, --update
	   Update the specified partitions.

       -S, --sector-size size
	   Overwrite default sector size.

       -v, --verbose
	   Verbose mode.

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

       -V, --version
	   Display version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT
       LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
	   enables libblkid debug output.

EXAMPLE
       partx --show /dev/sdb3, partx --show --nr 3 /dev/sdb, partx --show /dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb
	   All three commands list partition 3 of /dev/sdb.

       partx --show - /dev/sdb3
	   Lists all subpartitions on /dev/sdb3 (the device is used as whole-disk).

       partx -o START -g --nr 5 /dev/sdb
	   Prints the start sector of partition 5 on /dev/sdb without header.

       partx -o SECTORS,SIZE /dev/sda5 /dev/sda
	   Lists the length in sectors and human-readable size of partition 5 on /dev/sda.

       partx --add --nr 3:5 /dev/sdd
	   Adds all available partitions from 3 to 5 (inclusive) on /dev/sdd.

       partx -d --nr -1: /dev/sdd
	   Removes the last partition on /dev/sdd.

AUTHORS
       Davidlohr Bueso , Karel Zak 

       The original version was written by Andries E. Brouwer 

SEE ALSO
       addpart(8), delpart(8), fdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8)

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker .

AVAILABILITY
       The partx command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       .

util-linux 2.41.3					 2025-12-15						    PARTX(8)