From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:31375 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752416Ab1HPM5n (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:57:43 -0400 Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:57:38 +0200 From: Karel Zak To: Benno Schulenberg Cc: Util-Linux Subject: Re: [patches] small fixes to some messages and man pages, and some questions Message-ID: <20110816125738.GC14535@nb.net.home> References: <1313094127.6807.140258128661629@webmail.messagingengine.com> <20110815133430.GG1843@nb.net.home> <1313433269.27812.140258129893485@webmail.messagingengine.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <1313433269.27812.140258129893485@webmail.messagingengine.com> Sender: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 08:34:29PM +0200, Benno Schulenberg wrote: > > > > Also I do not understand the descriptions of the new options --nested, > > > --chained, and --onesector. [...] > > > > The original comment from code: > > > > /* [...] > > NESTED: every partition is contained in the surrounding partitions > > and is disjoint from all others. > > I still fail to understand. The each logical partition is defined by extended partition table (EBR) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_boot_record EBR contains usually two partitions: 1/ data partition (used as a logical partition) 2/ extended partition (used as a pointer to the next EBR) so if you have 5 logical partitions then there is usually 5 small partition tables and 5 extended partitions :-) The partitions are usually NESTED. The top-level (outermost) extended partition is the partition visible for end-users in fdisk output. > If "contained in the surrounding partitions" > means "contained in the containing partitions", it says nothing. If it > means "contained in the partitions that come before and after", this > seems impossible to me. The only way I can make sense of the > above comment is to read it as follows: > > NESTED: every extended partition is contained within a surrounding > extended partition [except of course the outermost one] and is disjoint > from all other extended partitions at the same nesting level. > > (Here I take "disjoint" to mean "does not overlap", but then I still fail > to understand how "mutually disjoint" is different.) NESTED: every extended partition is contained within a parental extended partition. IMHO nothing other is usable in Linux. > > > CHAINED: every data partition is contained in the surrounding partitions > > and disjoint from all others, but extended partitions may lie outside > > Is a data partition the same as a logical partition? Yes. IMHO the comment is mess as well as the implementation :-) Don't think about it too much. We need to rewrite sfdisk and cfdisk.... > > scriptreplay [options] [-t] timingfile [typescript [divisor]] Fixed in the usage(). Karel -- Karel Zak http://karelzak.blogspot.com