# partx

## 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 sizes in bytes rather than in human-readable form.
    
               By default, sizes are shown in units that are powers of 1024
               bytes. The formal abbreviations for these units (KiB, MiB,
               GiB, ...) are further shortened to just their first letter: K,
               M, G, ....
    
           **-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_.
    


## AVAILABILITY



           The **partx** 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
           util-linux@vger.kernel.org. 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 man-pages@man7.org
    
    util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46  2025-08-09                       _PARTX_(8)
    


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