Linux Disk Management
Related pages
SSD Management
See SSD Tuning for Linux.
Partitions
Some GUI software:
- gparted
Some CLI software:
- fdisk
- sfdisk
- parted
- gdisk (to deal with new GPT partition, see this link from microsoft for more info)
Some examples:
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda # Show partition table for device /dev/sda
$ sudo fdisk -l -u /dev/sda # ... using sector as unit
$ sudo parted -l # Show partition table of all devices
$ sudo parted /dev/sda print # ... of only device /dev/sda
$ sudo parted /dev/sda unit cyl print # ... using cylinder as unit
$ sudo parted /dev/sda unit s print # ... using sector as unit (more accurate)
$ sudo sfdisk -l -uS /dev/sda # Show partition table for device /dev/sda
$ sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda >sda-sfdisk.dump # Dump partition in a format that can be understood by sfdisk
$ sudo sfdisk /dev/sda <sda-sfdisk.dump # Restore a dumped partition table
$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=sda.mbr bs=512 count=1 # Save the complete MBR (table + boot code)
Use partprobe to force the kernel to re-read the MBR (re-read the partition table, see [1]). Or alternatively one can use fdisk to re-rewrite the same partition and force a re-read. And that are more solutions too ([2]):
$ sudo partprobe
# Or use fdisk
$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
Command: v
Command: w
# Or use blockdev
$ sudo /sbin/blockdev --rereadpt /dev/hda
# Or use sfdisk
$ sudo sfdisk -R /dev/sda
UUID and labels
Run sudo blkid to get the UUID number.
blkid
# /dev/sda1: LABEL="AWS_System" UUID="023C4FC93C4FB687" TYPE="ntfs"
# /dev/sda2: LABEL="BDEdrive" UUID="7C53861201698F3D" TYPE="ntfs"
# /dev/sda3: LABEL="BOOT" UUID="0af7ef1a-cf55-4e67-913f-e53711178a70" TYPE="ext3"
# /dev/sda5: UUID="754ca35b-fe65-4fce-a06d-8197f9494d7a" TYPE="reiserfs"
sudo lsblk -f shows a graphical representation (not for GPT system though):
$ sudo lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 ntfs AWS_System /c
├─sda2 ntfs BDEdrive
├─sda3 ext3 BOOT /boot
└─sda4
Note:
blkidshows the result of last execution by root. If you created/removed partitions, do:
sudo blkid -g # Remove devices that no longer exist
sudo blkid # Update uuid cache & show the uuid list
- Alternatively, list /dev/disk/by-uuid/ or /dev/disk/by-label/:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid
# total 0
# lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jul 8 16:20 023C4FC93C4FB687 -> ../../sda1
# lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jul 8 16:20 0af7ef1a-cf55-4e67-913f-e53711178a70 -> ../../sda3
# lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jul 8 16:20 754ca35b-fe65-4fce-a06d-8197f9494d7a -> ../../sda5
# lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jul 12 17:56 7C53861201698F3D -> ../../sda2
- To change UUID of ext filesystem:
tune2fs /dev/{device} -U {uuid} # See man tune2fs for options
- On GPT systems, you can view the GUID under linux with
sudo sgdisk -i 1 /dev/sda
# Partition GUID code: C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B (EFI System)
# Partition unique GUID: 2C47C282-EE6E-45DE-A5AD-E8658CA67DE6
# First sector: 2048 (at 1024.0 KiB)
# Last sector: 390625 (at 190.7 MiB)
# Partition size: 388578 sectors (189.7 MiB)
# Attribute flags: 1000000000000000
# Partition name: 'EFI System'
- GUID is set with
sudo sgdisk -u 1:2C47C282-EE6E-45DE-A5AD-E8658CA67DE6 /dev/sda
GPT, EFI, MS reserved partition
- GUID Partition Table
The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a new partition scheme that replaces the legacy scheme called MBR.
- The GPT usually has a protective MBR, which is a legacy MBR sector with a single partition (code
OxEE) that spans the whole disk (or as much as possible) - GPT imposes no limit on the number of partition (but currently limited to 128 on Windows).
- Partitions in the GPT are identified via their GUID
How does the GUID in the GPT relates to the one in the partition itself, like the one set by tune2fs -U <uuid>?
- EFI System Partition
- The EFI System Partition (ESP) contains all the files that are necessary for booting the operating system
- It is usually 100MB in size.
- It has a specific GUID
DEFINE_GUID (PARTITION_SYSTEM_GUID, 0xC12A7328L, 0xF81F, 0x11D2, 0xBA, 0x4B, 0x00, 0xA0, 0xC9, 0x3E, 0xC9, 0x3B)
- Microsoft Specific Partition
- Reserved for future use by Windows in case some extra is needed (for instance dynamic disks). When so, the partition would be reduced and a new partition is created. This is to avoid using hidden sectors.
- Contains no relevant information.
- It has a specific GUID
DEFINE_GUID (PARTITION_MSFT_RESERVED_GUID, 0xE3C9E316L, 0x0B5C, 0x4DB8, 0x81, 0x7D, 0xF9, 0x2D, 0xF0, 0x02, 0x15, 0xAE)
Resizing Partitions
gparted
Probably one of the best way to edit/resize/move partition is to use the GUI tool gparted. It suports many different file systems, and allows for both resizing the file system but also updating the partition table.
If no GUI is available, here a few recipes for command-line.
Reiserfs
- Use resize_reiserfs to resize the partition, and get the new partition size
- Change the partition table
- Run reiserfsck
resize_reiserfs -s -4G /dev/sda6 #Must be unmount
df
sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda >sda-sfdisk.dump # Edit sda-sfdisk.dump
sudo reiserfsck --rebuild-sb
sudo reiserfsck --fix-fixable
Mounting Partitions
See also reference pages above
Using /etc/fstab
# NTFS
UUID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX /media/windows ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
Partitions can then be mounted with mount <mount-point>
Using mount
# NTFS - mount point /media/windows must be chgrp plugdev
sudo mount -t ntfs -o defaults,umask=007,gid=46 /dev/sda1 /media/windows
# SAMBA
sudo mount -t cifs -o username=baddreams,uid=1000,gid=124 //phoenix/D$ /net/phoenix/d
Remounting root partition read-write
If /etc/fstab is corrupted, boot process might stop while root partition is mounted read-only. To remount it in read-write mode in order to fix /etc/fstab (see [3]):
mount -n -o remount,defaults /dev/sda1 / # -n means do not update /etc/mtab (when /etc is ro)
Boost ext3/4 performance by enabling data writeback and disabling atime
Data writeback leads to faster performance on ext3/4 filesystem, at the cost of possible loss of new data in case of system crash (old data magically reappear) (see [4]). To enable it simply add data=writeback to mount options in /etc/fstab. Also disable update of atime (access time):
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro,noatime,data=writeback 0 1
Unmount partition first! Either unmount the partition, or first run tune2fs to update the current mount flag:
tune2fs -o journal_data_writeback /dev/sda1
Backup
References
- [1] — A comprehensive analysis Backing up Linux and other Unix(-like) systems
Recommends DAR. tar, rsync, rdiff-backup are also options - [2] — [5] for using cpio in order to preserve hardlinks
cp
cp can preserve all metadata, ownership, permissions, etc, as long as the user has the necessary rights and metadata are supported by the destination file system [6].
cp -a src dst # GNU cp -a copies recursively preserving as much structure and metadata as possible.
sudo cp -a src dst # ... running as root to preserve ownership
rsync
rsync can preserve all metadata, ownership, permissions, etc, as long as the user has the necessary rights and metadata are supported by the destination file system [7].
Advantages over cp ([8]):
- Only copy updated parts of an updated file (handy for incremental copies)
- has a
--deleteoption - Use encryption / decryption (handy over network)
rsync -a src dst # -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
rsync -aH src dst # ... -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
rsync -aHA src dst # ... -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
rsync -aHAX src dst # ... -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
|
|
rsync goal is to synchronize 2 remote file systems over the network
My set of command line options (sudo pre-activation credits to [(credit http://crashingdaily.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/rsync-and-sudo-over-ssh/)] and [9])
#If needed, pre-activate sudo on remote system. Flag -t required to solve 'sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified'
#
# Also, this requires the following line in /etc/sudoers:
#
# Defaults !tty_tickets
#
stty -echo; ssh -t user@server sudo -v; stty echo
sudo rsync -aHAXS --delete --rsync-path "sudo rsync" --numeric-ids -h -v --exclude='lost+found' user@server:/remote/path /local/path
# -a, --archive aka. preserve almost everything (equiv. to -rlptgoD, i.e. --recursive, --links, --perms, --times,
# --group, --owner, --devices, --specials)
# -H, --hard-links preserve hardlinks
# -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
# -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
# -S, --sparse handle sparse file efficiently
# --delete delete extraneous files from the receiving side
# --rsync-path command executed on remote system
# --numeric-ids use gid / uid instead of user/group name for file permissions
# -v, --verbose display file while transfering
# --exclude='lost+found' useful on ext3/ext4
Some options to consider adding:
# -z, --compress might increase txf speed on slow network (internet)
# -h, --human-readable
# --stats
# -P equiv. to --partial --progress (quite verbose)
# -v -v more verbose
tar
tar can preserve all metadata, ownership, permissions, etc, as long as the user has the necessary rights and metadata are supported by the destination file system [10].
(cd src;tar cf - .) | (mkdir dst;cd dst;tar xf -) # create src as before
tar cf - . | tar xCf directory - # Same
pax (POSIX tar)
pax can preserve all metadata, ownership, permissions, etc, as long as the user has the necessary rights and metadata are supported by the destination file system [11].
mkdir dst
pax -rw src dst # Same as tar, but pack and unpack in a single process
BackupPC
Tools used by Phil Teuwen. Not used yet.
CloneZilla
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
|
cpio
Some standard tool (see also [2] above).
DAR
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
|
|
DAR is recommended by [1] above. I personally tried the transfer through netword capability, but without success (broken image)
dump / restore
Backup tool for ext2/ext3 (/ext4 ?). See Backup or snaphot tool for ext4, but requires LVM2 for snapshot.
FSArchiver
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
| * Does not support archiving through network (pipe). So one cannot save a partition, and restore it immediately on another machine through network for instance. |
See this tutorial.
fsarchiver -v savefs /mnt/backupdrive/my-backup.fsa /dev/sda4
fsarchiver restfs -v /mnt/backupdrive/my-backup.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda4
sudo mount -o remount,ro /dev/sda4 # To remount read-only if complain it is mounted already
ntfsclone
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
|
Simply the best for ntfs backup (support partition-2-partition backup through network).
Partclone, PartImage
ntfsclone
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
|
|
PartImage is another solution, but it does not support ext4.
RAMFS / TMPFS
References:
- http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/11/overview-of-ramfs-and-tmpfs-on-linux/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmpfs
Using RAMFS and TMPFS you can allocate part of the physical memory to be used as a partition. This partition can be mounted as a regular hard disk partition to accelerate tasks that requires heavy disk access (this partition could store for instance a database, or a version control repository...)
Access Control
References:
- Part 1: How to work with Access Control Lists from the Command Line
- Part 2: How to work with Access Control Lists from the Command Line
- Using SGID to Control Group Ownership of Directories
Using SGID bit to Control Group Ownership
SGID bit allows for controlling the Group Ownership of files within a directory:
mkdir /data/testacl
chgrp git /data/testacl # Set group to 'git'
chmod g+s /data/testacl # Set SGID bit
cd /data/testacl
touch file # Now 'file' has group 'git', independently of current user primary group
This is nice, but access condition is still dependent on user's umask setting. Also, moving or copying files ignore the sticky bit.
Using ACL to set default access control
ACL must be installed:
sudo apt-get install acl
... and enabled on the target file system in /etc/fstab:
/dev/sda7 /data ext4 defaults,acl 0 2
Now, let's say that default permission is 'rwx' for file created in our 'test' directory above:
cd
setfacl -m d:group:git:rwx /data/testacl # By default, all members of group 'git' will have rwx access
# Independently of user's umask setting
umask 022
touch /data/testacl/file022 # File 'file022' is still writable for group 'git'
However this does not work if files are copied or moved into the directory. In that case, files may either lose the group access flags, or even lose group ownership (see [12] for more). This could be a problem if for instance some application is unpacking some files in a temporary directory and then moves them to our ACL-controlled directory.
Change session primary group
We can change the primary group of the current session (and all sub-processes) so that any files created in the session belongs to some given group. This method is robust against moving / copying files into a directory, as long as these files have created in the same session. As a drawback however, it requires to first run a command to do the group switch:
Secure Wipe
Easiest and fastest method, use shred with one random pass and one zero pass (from []). This is safe enough according to this article:
sudo shred -v -z -n 1 /dev/sda