Oh, Parted. Your documentation states that commands which have START and END parameters can take relative values (e.g. -1024 means 1024 units of measurement from the end of the disk). Nowhere does it say that parted only accepts it for the END parameter? Do your developers not appreciate a) how useful it would be to allow it for both parameters and b) that this would actually make the code cleaner?
Then there is your move command. This refuses to move a partition which contains no recognisable filesystem. I do not want a filesystem on there, but am forced to create one just so that I can move the partition, then scrub it off again. 21st century to GNU: people do use block devices for things other than filesystems and have actually been doing so since some time back in the 20th. Also, some people may want to use your allegedly-scriptable utility to partition disks to standard sizes but then apply different filesystem types depending on the circumstances . Your code path is already full of annoying interactive prompts; how hard would it have been to place one here, or to add a "force" parameter? How hard is it to *not* execute a code branch? What makes it worse is that you also have a resize command, which differes from the move command only in that the END parameter is mandatory, rather than optional. How hard would it have been to have "move" be able to relocate empty partitions and leave "resize" to quibble, since resize is already the less forgiving command? Finally, there's your inconsistent interactivity. When used interactively, there are some commands which will always prompt if a parameter is missing or will have destructive effects, other commands which will always prompt in those circumstances and yet more commands which will sometimes prompt and other times not, depending on a) whether or not they can work out for themselves what they *think* I meant to do and b) whether or not the result is *significantly* different from what I actually asked for. Hate! And while you have an option to turn off prompting, you have no option to make it mandatory. HATE! "Parted will always warn you before doing something that is potentially dangerous, unless the command is one of those that is inherently dangerous". This is because parted is a moron. If there were an alternative, GPT-capable partition editor for the mandated commercial distribution in question, I would spurn you for the shit you are. GNU, it's not just that you don't exert enough quality control; all the evidence, from your tatty rag-bag collection of software, is that you actively encourage this kind of 1980s DOS shareware eccentricity. Long standing hate. -- Bruce A problem shared brings the consolation that someone else is now feeling as miserable as you.
