On Nov 25, 2011, at 10:01 AM, Tim Roberts wrote: > > On Nov 24, 2011, at 2:00 PM, [email protected] wrote: > >> >> On Nov 23, 2011, at 1:44 PM, Tim Roberts wrote: >>> >>> Not sure if it would help but you might take a look at gdisk (GPT fdisk) >> >> Yes I use it on linux, but was hoping to avoid the clusterF that is dealing >> with XCode and Macports, just to have a 400K command line app. I'm mystified >> why this capability isn't built into diskutil. > > Binary Package installer available through Sourceforge. No need to mess with > Macports or Xcode. > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/
DOH! I just love it when someone else does my research for me, thanks Tim. I think what happened is a while back I was looking for gdisk and found an old 0.6 version. But there is a new sourceforge entry GPT fdisk which has the latest version. BTW, it's the best GPT editor hands down, IMO. It uses essentially the same interface as fdisk, unlike parted which adopts similar terms for MBR and GPT partition schemes - but those terms often don't translate. e.g. the parted 'boot' flag for an MBR disk sets the active flag for a partition, whereas on GPT disks the 'boot' flag changes the partition type GUID to that of EFI System Partition. Big difference. Plus parted immediately writes changes to disk whereas gdisk like fdisk lets you make non-destructive mods until you write out the changes. Compared to diskutil, the info gdisk provides on the entire partition and on individual partitions is more complete. Diskutil provides less information about partition specifics, and more information about filesystems on those partitions. It's invaluable for helping to create dual and triple boot systems. It has a command to create hybrid MBRs from the GPT, with precise control on what GPT partitions are added to the MBR, unlike gptsync. And a hybrid MBR is unfortunately necessary due to how Apple's CSM/BIOS implementation works if you want dual or triple booting systems. It's also useful for adding/deleting specific partitions, while not affecting others. Diskutil indirectly adds partitions by splitting them, and deletes them by merging. It doesn't have discrete delete and add commands. Chris _______________________________________________ MacOSX-admin mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-admin
