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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | OPTIONS | INPUT FORMATS | EMPTY DISK LABEL | BACKING UP THE PARTITION TABLE | COLORS | ENVIRONMENT | NOTES | EXAMPLES | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY |
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SFDISK(8) System Administration SFDISK(8)
sfdisk - display or manipulate a disk partition table
sfdisk [options] device [-N partition-number]
sfdisk [options] command
sfdisk is a script-oriented tool for partitioning any block
device. It runs in interactive mode if executed on a terminal
(stdin refers to a terminal).
Since version 2.26 sfdisk 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.
sfdisk protects the first disk sector when create a new disk
label. The option --wipe always disables this protection. Note
that fdisk(8) and cfdisk(8) completely erase this area by default.
sfdisk (since version 2.26) aligns the start and end of partitions
to block-device I/O limits when relative sizes are specified, when
the default values are used or when multiplicative suffixes (e.g.,
MiB) are used for sizes. It is possible that partition size will
be optimized (reduced or enlarged) due to alignment if the start
offset is specified exactly in sectors and partition size relative
or by multiplicative suffixes.
The recommended way is not to specify start offsets at all and
specify partition size in MiB, GiB (or so). In this case sfdisk
aligns all partitions to block-device I/O limits (or when I/O
limits are too small then to megabyte boundary to keep disk layout
portable). If this default behaviour is unwanted (usually for very
small partitions) then specify offsets and sizes in sectors. In
this case sfdisk entirely follows specified numbers without any
optimization.
sfdisk does not create the standard system partitions for SGI and
SUN disk labels like fdisk(8) does. It is necessary to explicitly
create all partitions including whole-disk system partitions.
sfdisk uses BLKRRPART (reread partition table) ioctl to make sure
that the device is not used by system or other tools (see also
--no-reread). It’s possible that this feature or another sfdisk
activity races with systemd-udevd(8). The recommended way how to
avoid possible collisions is to use --lock option. The exclusive
lock will cause systemd-udevd to skip the event handling on the
device.
The sfdisk prompt is only a hint for users and a displayed
partition number does not mean that the same partition table entry
will be created (if -N not specified), especially for tables with
gaps.
The commands are mutually exclusive.
[-N partition-number] device
The default sfdisk command is to read the specification for
the desired partitioning of device from standard input, and
then create a partition table according to the specification.
See below for the description of the input format. If standard
input is a terminal, then sfdisk starts an interactive
session.
If the option -N is specified, then the changes are applied to
the partition addressed by partition-number. The unspecified
fields of the partition are not modified.
Note that it’s possible to address an unused partition with
-N. For example, an MBR always contains 4 partitions, but the
number of used partitions may be smaller. In this case sfdisk
follows the default values from the partition table and does
not use built-in defaults for the unused partition given with
-N. See also --append.
-A, --activate device [partition-number...]
Switch on the bootable flag for the specified partitions and
switch off the bootable flag on all unspecified partitions.
The special placeholder '-' may be used instead of the
partition numbers to switch off the bootable flag on all
partitions.
The activation command is supported for MBR and PMBR only. If
a GPT label is detected, then sfdisk prints warning and
automatically enters PMBR.
If no partition-number is specified, then list the partitions
with an enabled flag.
--backup-pt-sectors device
Back up the current partition table sectors in binary format
and exit. See the BACKING UP THE PARTITION TABLE section.
--delete device [partition-number...]
Delete all or the specified partitions.
-d, --dump device
Dump the partitions of a device in a format that is usable as
input to sfdisk. See the BACKING UP THE PARTITION TABLE
section.
-g, --show-geometry [device...]
List the geometry of all or the specified devices. For
backward compatibility the deprecated option
--show-pt-geometry have the same meaning as this one.
-J, --json device
Dump the partitions of a device in JSON format. Note that
sfdisk is not able to use JSON as input format.
-l, --list [device...]
List the partitions of all or the specified devices. This
command can be used together with --verify.
-F, --list-free [device...]
List the free unpartitioned areas on all or the specified
devices.
--part-attrs device partition-number [attributes]
Change the GPT partition attribute bits. If attributes is not
specified, then print the current partition settings. The
attributes argument is a comma- or space-delimited list of
bits numbers or bit names. For example, the string
"RequiredPartition,50,51" sets three bits. The currently
supported attribute bits are:
Bit 0 (RequiredPartition)
If this bit is set, the partition is required for the
platform to function. The creator of the partition
indicates that deletion or modification of the contents
can result in loss of platform features or failure for the
platform to boot or operate. The system cannot function
normally if this partition is removed, and it should be
considered part of the hardware of the system.
Bit 1 (NoBlockIOProtocol)
EFI firmware should ignore the content of the partition
and not try to read from it.
Bit 2 (LegacyBIOSBootable)
The partition may be bootable by legacy BIOS firmware.
Bits 3-47
Undefined and must be zero. Reserved for expansion by
future versions of the UEFI specification.
Bits 48-63
Reserved for GUID specific use. The use of these bits will
vary depending on the partition type. For example
Microsoft uses bit 60 to indicate read-only, 61 for shadow
copy of another partition, 62 for hidden partitions and 63
to disable automount.
--part-label device partition-number [label]
Change the GPT partition name (label). If label is not
specified, then print the current partition label.
--part-type device partition-number [type]
Change the partition type. If type is not specified, then
print the current partition type.
The type argument is hexadecimal for MBR, GUID for GPT, type
alias (e.g. "linux") or type shortcut (e.g. 'L'). For backward
compatibility the options -c and --id have the same meaning as
this one.
--part-uuid device partition-number [uuid]
Change the GPT partition UUID. If uuid is not specified, then
print the current partition UUID.
--disk-id device [id]
Change the disk identifier. If id is not specified, then print
the current identifier. The identifier is UUID for GPT or
unsigned integer for MBR.
--discard-free device
Discard any unused (unpartitioned) sectors on the device. Use
the --list-free option to get a list of the free regions. See
also blkdiscard(8).
Warning
All data in the discarded regions on the device will be
lost! Do not use this option if you are unsure.
Note that the 'T' command in fdisk provides a dialog to
specify which unused area should be discarded. However, sfdisk
always discards all unpartitioned regions (except for the
areas where it is not possible to create partitions, such as
the beginning of the device).
-r, --reorder device
Renumber the partitions, ordering them by their start offset.
-s, --show-size [device...]
List the sizes of all or the specified devices in units of
1024 byte size. This command is DEPRECATED in favour of
blockdev(8).
-T, --list-types
Print all supported types for the current disk label or the
label specified by --label.
-V, --verify [device...]
Test whether the partition table and partitions seem correct.
--relocate oper device
Relocate partition table header. This command is currently
supported for GPT header only. The argument oper can be:
gpt-bak-std
Move GPT backup header to the standard location at the end
of the device.
gpt-bak-mini
Move GPT backup header behind the last partition. Note
that UEFI standard requires the backup header at the end
of the device and partitioning tools can automatically
relocate the header to follow the standard.
-a, --append
Don’t create a new partition table, but only append the
specified partitions.
Note that in this case an unused partition may be re-used even
though it is not the last partition in the partition table.
See also -N for addressing a specific entry in the partition
table.
-b, --backup
Back up the current partition table sectors before starting
the partitioning. The default backup file name is
~/sfdisk-<device>-<offset>.bak; to use another name see option
-O, --backup-file. See section BACKING UP THE PARTITION TABLE
for more details.
--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 colors can be disabled; for the current built-in
default see the --help output. See also the COLORS section.
-f, --force
Disable all consistency checking.
--Linux
Deprecated and ignored option. Partitioning that is compatible
with Linux (and other modern operating systems) is the
default.
--lock[=mode]
Use an exclusive BSD lock for the device or file that is
operated upon. The optional argument mode can be yes (1), no
(0), or nonblock. If the mode argument is omitted, it defaults
to yes. This option overrides the environment variable
$LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE. The default is to not use any lock at all,
but using a lock is recommended to avoid collisions with
systemd-udevd(8) or other tools.
-n, --no-act
Do everything except writing to the device.
--no-reread
Do not check through the re-read-partition-table ioctl whether
the device is in use.
--no-tell-kernel
Don’t tell the kernel about partition changes. This option is
recommended together with --no-reread to modify a partition on
used disk. The modified partition should not be used (e.g.,
mounted).
-O, --backup-file path
Override the default backup file name. Note that the device
name and offset are always appended to the file name.
--move-data[=path]
Move data after partition relocation, for example when moving
the beginning of a partition to another place on the disk. The
size of the partition has to remain the same, the new and old
location may overlap. This option requires option -N in order
to be processed on one specific partition only.
The optional path specifies log file name. The log file
contains information about all read/write operations on the
partition data. The word "@default" as a path forces sfdisk to
use ~/sfdisk-<devname>.move for the log. The log is optional
since v2.35.
Note that this operation is risky and not atomic. Don’t forget
to backup your data!
See also --move-use-fsync.
In the example below, the first command creates a 100MiB free
area before the first partition and moves the data it contains
(e.g., a filesystem), the next command creates a new partition
from the free space (at offset 2048), and the last command
reorders partitions to match disk order (the original sdc1
will become sdc2).
echo '+100M,' | sfdisk --move-data /dev/sdc -N 1
echo '2048,' | sfdisk /dev/sdc --append
sfdisk /dev/sdc --reorder
--move-use-fsync
Use the fsync(2) system call after each write when moving data
to a new location by --move-data.
-o, --output list
Specify which output columns to print. Use --help to get a
list of all supported columns.
The default list of columns may be extended if list is
specified in the format +list (e.g., -o +UUID).
-q, --quiet
Suppress extra info messages.
--sector-size sectorsize
Specify the sector size of the disk. Valid values are 512,
1024, 2048, and 4096. The kernel is aware of the sector size
for regular block devices. Use this option only on very old
kernels, when working with disk images, or to override the
kernel’s default sector size. Since util-linux-2.17, fdisk
distinguishes between logical and physical sector size. This
option changes both sector sizes to the specified sectorsize.
-u, --unit S
Deprecated option. Only the sector unit is supported. This
option is not supported when using the --show-size command.
-X, --label type
Specify the disk-label type (e.g., dos, gpt, ...). If this
option is not given, then sfdisk defaults to the type of the
existing label, but if there is no label on the device yet,
then the type defaults to dos. This default may be overridden
by the "label: <name>" script-header line. The option --label
does not force sfdisk to create an empty disk label (see the
EMPTY DISK LABEL section below).
-Y, --label-nested type
Force editing of a nested disk label. The primary disk label
has to exist already. This option allows editing for example a
hybrid/protective MBR on devices with GPT.
-w, --wipe when
Wipe filesystem, RAID and partition-table signatures from the
device, in order to avoid possible collisions. The argument
when can be auto, never or always. When this option is not
given, the default is auto, in which case signatures are wiped
only when in interactive mode; except the old partition-table
signatures which are always wiped before create a new
partition-table if the argument when is not never. The auto
mode also does not wipe the first sector (boot sector), it is
necessary to use the always mode to wipe this area. In all
cases detected signatures are reported by warning messages
before a new partition table is created. See also the
wipefs(8) command.
-W, --wipe-partitions when
Wipe filesystem, RAID and partition-table signatures from a
newly created partition, in order to avoid possible
collisions. The argument when can be auto, never or always.
When this option is not given, the default is auto, in which
case signatures are wiped only when in interactive mode and
after confirmation by user. In all cases detected signatures
are reported by warning messages after a new partition is
created. See also wipefs(8) command.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-v, --version
Display version and exit.
sfdisk supports two input formats and generic header lines.
Header lines
The optional header lines specify generic information that apply
to the partition table. The header-line format is:
<name>: <value>
The currently recognized headers are:
unit
Specify the partitioning unit. The only supported unit is
sectors.
label
Specify the partition table type. For example dos or gpt.
label-id
Specify the partition table identifier. It should be a
hexadecimal number (with a 0x prefix) for MBR and a UUID for
GPT.
first-lba
Specify the first usable sector for GPT partitions. This
header is ignored if the script and device sector size differ.
In this case sfdisk uses label specific default.
last-lba
Specify the last usable sector for GPT partitions. This header
is ignored if the script and device sector size differ. In
this case sfdisk uses label specific default. The last-lba
header is ignored if --force is specified, making the script
usable on disks with different sizes.
table-length
Specify the maximal number of GPT partitions.
grain
Specify minimal size in bytes used to calculate partitions
alignment. The default is 1MiB and it’s strongly recommended
to use the default. Do not modify this variable if you’re not
sure.
sector-size
Specifies the sector size used in the input. sfdisk always
internally uses the device sector size provided by the kernel
for the block device, or as specified by the user on the
command line (see --sector-size). Starting with version 2.39,
sfdisk recalculates sizes from the input if the sector-size
header and device sector size are different.
Note that it is only possible to use header lines before the first
partition is specified in the input.
Unnamed-fields format
start size type bootable
where each line fills one partition descriptor.
Fields are separated by whitespace, comma (recommended) or
semicolon possibly followed by whitespace; initial and trailing
whitespace is ignored. Numbers can be octal, decimal or
hexadecimal; decimal is the default. When a field is absent, empty
or specified as '-' a default value is used. But when the -N
option (change a single partition) is given, the default for each
field is its previous value.
The default value of start is the first non-assigned sector
aligned according to device I/O limits. The default start offset
for the first partition is 1 MiB. If the offset is followed by the
multiplicative suffixes (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and
YiB), then the number is interpreted as offset in bytes. Since
v2.38 when the -N option (change a single partition) is given, a
'+' can be used to enlarge partition by move start of the
partition if there is a free space before the partition.
The default value of size indicates "as much as possible"; i.e.,
until the next partition or end-of-device. A numerical argument is
by default interpreted as a number of sectors, however if the size
is followed by one of the multiplicative suffixes (KiB, MiB, GiB,
TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB) then the number is interpreted as the
size of the partition in bytes and it is then aligned according to
the device I/O limits. A '+' can be used instead of a number to
enlarge the partition as much as possible. Note '+' is equivalent
to the default behaviour for a new partition; existing partitions
will be resized as required.
The partition type is given in hex for MBR (DOS) where 0x prefix
is optional; a GUID string for GPT; a shortcut or an alias. It’s
recommended to use two letters for MBR hex codes to avoid
collision between deprecated shortcut 'E' and '0E' MBR hex code.
For backward compatibility sfdisk tries to interpret type as a
shortcut as a first possibility in partitioning scripts although
on other places (e.g. --part-type command) it tries shortcuts as
the last possibility.
Since v2.36 libfdisk supports partition type aliases as extension
to shortcuts. The alias is a simple human readable word (e.g.
"linux").
Since v2.37 libfdisk supports partition type names on input,
ignoring the case of the characters and all non-alphanumeric and
non-digit characters in the name (e.g. "Linux /usr x86" is the
same as "linux usr-x86").
Supported shortcuts and aliases:
L - alias 'linux'
Linux; means 83 for MBR and
0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4 for GPT.
S - alias 'swap'
swap area; means 82 for MBR and
0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F for GPT
Ex - alias 'extended'
MBR extended partition; means 05 for MBR. The original
shortcut 'E' is deprecated due to collision with 0x0E MBR
partition type.
H - alias 'home'
home partition; means 933AC7E1-2EB4-4F13-B844-0E14E2AEF915 for
GPT
U - alias 'uefi'
EFI System partition, means EF for MBR and
C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B for GPT
R - alias 'raid'
Linux RAID; means FD for MBR and
A19D880F-05FC-4D3B-A006-743F0F84911E for GPT
V - alias 'lvm'
LVM; means 8E for MBR and E6D6D379-F507-44C2-A23C-238F2A3DF928
for GPT
The default type value is linux.
The shortcut 'X' for Linux extended partition (85) is deprecated
in favour of 'Ex'.
bootable is specified as [*|-], with as default not-bootable. The
value of this field is irrelevant for Linux - when Linux runs it
has been booted already - but it might play a role for certain
boot loaders and for other operating systems.
Named-fields format
This format is more readable, robust, extensible and allows
specifying additional information (e.g., a UUID). It is
recommended to use this format to keep your scripts more readable.
[device :] name[=value], ...
The device field is optional. sfdisk extracts the partition number
from the device name. It allows specifying the partitions in
random order. This functionality is mostly used by --dump. Don’t
use it if you are not sure.
The value can be between quotation marks (e.g., name="This is
partition name"). The fields start= and size= support '+' and '-'
in the same way as Unnamed-fields format.
The currently supported fields are:
start=number
The first non-assigned sector aligned according to device I/O
limits. The default start offset for the first partition is 1
MiB. If the offset is followed by the multiplicative suffixes
(KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB), then the number
is interpreted as offset in bytes.
size=number
Specify the partition size in sectors. The number may be
followed by the multiplicative suffixes (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB,
PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB), then it’s interpreted as size in bytes
and the size is aligned according to device I/O limits.
bootable
Mark the partition as bootable.
attrs=string
Partition attributes, usually GPT partition attribute bits.
See --part-attrs for more details about the GPT-bits string
format.
uuid=string
GPT partition UUID.
name=string
GPT partition name.
type=code
A hexadecimal number (without 0x) for an MBR partition, a GUID
for a GPT partition, a shortcut as for unnamed-fields format
or a type name (e.g. type="Linux /usr (x86)"). See above the
section about the unnamed-fields format for more details. For
backward compatibility the Id= field has the same meaning.
sfdisk does not create partition table without partitions by
default. The lines with partitions are expected in the script by
default. The empty partition table has to be explicitly requested
by "label: <name>" script header line without any partitions
lines. For example:
echo 'label: gpt' | sfdisk /dev/sdb
creates empty GPT partition table. Note that the --append disables
this feature.
It is recommended to save the layout of your devices. sfdisk
supports two ways.
Dump in sfdisk compatible format
Use the --dump command to save a description of the device layout
to a text file. The dump format is suitable for later sfdisk
input. For example:
sfdisk --dump /dev/sda > sda.dump
This can later be restored by:
sfdisk /dev/sda < sda.dump
Note that sfdisk completely restores partition types and partition
UUIDs. This could potentially become problematic if you duplicate
the same layout to different disks, as it may result in duplicate
UUIDs within your system.
Full binary backup
If you want to do a full binary backup of all sectors where the
partition table is stored, then use the --backup-pt-sectors
command. It writes the sectors to ~/sfdisk-<device>-<offset>.bak
files. The default name of the backup file can be changed with the
--backup-file option. The backup files contain only raw data from
the device. For example:
sfdisk --backup-pt-sectors /dev/sda
The GPT header can later be restored by:
dd if=~/sfdisk-sda-0x00000200.bak of=/dev/sda
seek=$((0x00000200)) bs=1 conv=notrunc
It’s also possible to use the --backup option to create the same
backup immediately after startup for other sfdisk commands. For
example, backup partition table before deleting all partitions
from partition table:
sfdisk --backup --delete /dev/sda
The same concept of backup files is used by wipefs(8).
Note that sfdisk since version 2.26 no longer provides the -I
option to restore sectors. dd(1) provides all necessary
functionality.
The output colorization is implemented by terminal-colors.d(5)
functionality. Implicit coloring can be disabled by an empty file
/etc/terminal-colors.d/sfdisk.disable
for the sfdisk command or for all tools by
/etc/terminal-colors.d/disable
Since version 2.41, the $NO_COLOR environment variable is also
supported to disable output colorization unless explicitly enabled
by a command-line option.
The user-specific $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/terminal-colors.d or
$HOME/.config/terminal-colors.d overrides the global setting.
Note that the output colorization may be enabled by default, and
in this case terminal-colors.d directories do not have to exist
yet.
The logical color names supported by sfdisk are:
header
The header of the output tables.
warn
The warning messages.
welcome
The welcome message.
SFDISK_DEBUG=all
enables sfdisk debug output.
LIBFDISK_DEBUG=all
enables libfdisk debug output.
LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
enables libblkid debug output.
LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
enables libsmartcols debug output.
LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See --lock for
more details.
Since version 2.26 sfdisk no longer provides the -R or --re-read
option to force the kernel to reread the partition table. Use
blockdev --rereadpt instead.
Since version 2.26 sfdisk does not provide the --DOS, --IBM,
--DOS-extended, --unhide, --show-extended, --cylinders, --heads,
--sectors, --inside-outer, --not-inside-outer options.
sfdisk --list --label-nested=mbr /dev/sda
Print protective MBR on device with GPT disk label.
echo -e ',10M,L\n,10M,L\n,+,\n' | sfdisk /dev/sdc
Create three Linux partitions, with the default start, the
size of the first two partitions is 10MiB, and the last
partition fills all available space on the device.
echo -e 'size=10M, type=L\n size=10M, type=L\n size=+\n' | sfdisk
/dev/sdc
The same as the previous example, but in named-fields format.
echo -e 'type=swap' | sfdisk -N 3 /dev/sdc
Set type of the 3rd partition to 'swap'.
sfdisk --part-type /dev/sdc 3 swap
The same as the previous example, but without script use.
sfdisk --delete /dev/sdc 2
Delete 2nd partition.
echo "+,+" | sfdisk -N 3 --move-data /dev/sdc
Enlarge 3rd partition in both directions, move start to use
free space before the partition and enlarge the size to use
all free space after to the partition, and move partition data
too.
Karel Zak <[email protected]>
The current sfdisk implementation is based on the original sfdisk
from Andries E. Brouwer.
fdisk(8), cfdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8), partx(8)
For bug reports, use the issue tracker
<https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.
The sfdisk command is part of the util-linux package which can be
downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
<https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page is
part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux utilities)
project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
bug report for this manual page, send it to
[email protected]. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
was found in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any
rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
mail to [email protected]
util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46 2025-08-09 SFDISK(8)
Pages that refer to this page: repart.d(5), cfdisk(8), fdisk(8), udevadm(8)
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