In message <84c6f3b1-58b3-44f8-aeaf-35f78e059...@quip.cz>, Miroslav Lachman wri tes: > On 25/01/2024 06:50, Cy Schubert wrote: > > In message <CANCZdfq+F1iFpUkDEYdcxPJfp96Ymz8KjBGaK_JNN1i09s7P=A@mail.gmail. > c > > > >> > >> What can they do that gpart can't do? > > > > This was quite a while ago, booted off my recovery USB attempting to repair > > some self caused damage. The ability to edit (vi) a file with starting > > addresses and lengths, visually using bsdlabel, was suited to my panicked > > state as I worked to recover the machine. > > > > A visual view of columns of a bsdlabel, editing a label using vi, checking > > and double checking numbers before committing them is handy.The visual > > format and the ability to adjust the numbers in an editor before committing > > them is handy. You can't do this with gpart, as it's transactional. And > > bsdinstall doesn't give one the opportunity to check the numbers in detail > > on a console before committing them. > > If you really like your editor of choice to edit partition table, you > can use gpart backup and gpart restore like this: > > gpart backup ada0 > ada0.part > vi ada0.part > gpart restore -F -l < ada0.part
That would work. > > > Maybe a good GSoC project may be to replace bsdlabel's driect writes to > > disk with geom calls. Though, t doesn't need to be bsdlabel, but some kind > > of utility that displays the existing label in an editor session where > > changes can be made, using the editor, and committed. This could even be an > > enhancement to bsdinstall: call it expert mode or whatever. > > Manipulating partition table in editor session can be achieved by few > lines of shell script as a wrapper around gpart backup & gpart restore. Or just build a gpart edit mode with the functions used to implement backup and restore. Excellent idea. Thank you. A small project to work on. > > Kind regards > Miroslav Lachman -- Cheers, Cy Schubert <cy.schub...@cschubert.com> FreeBSD UNIX: <c...@freebsd.org> Web: https://FreeBSD.org NTP: <c...@nwtime.org> Web: https://nwtime.org e^(i*pi)+1=0
