Re: Removing fdisk and bsdlabel (legacy partition tools)

In message <ADDF4687-D489-4D8D-9C0A-F40C31D94985@hausen.com>, "Patrick M. 
Hause
n" writes:
> Hi all,
>
> > Am 25.01.2024 um 00:47 schrieb Rodney W. Grimes =
> <freebsd-rwg@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net>:
> >=20
> >> I would agree personally, to moving to ports (eg ports/sysutils) with
> >> a DEPRECATED in the DESCR or something, or better yet a Make
> >> invokation event to say "superceded, here is how to proceed against
> >> advice") or something.
> >=20
> > They are totally useless as ports when your booted from install
> > media and working from a standalone shell.  These are the exact
> > times you want things like fdisk and bsdlabel so you can figure
> > out wtf is going on, and bsdinstall is NOT gona help you.
> >=20
> > I know there are a boat load of people that have built there
> > own installers for VM's and stuff, running UFS and I bet you
> > they are using MBR disks too.  PLEASE do not kick these tiny
> > little and very usable and pretty univeral (as far as I know
> > ALL BSD's have fdisk and bsdlabel/disklabel) tools out of
> > the base system.
> >=20
> > The world is NOT 2TB nvme drives with GPT, EFI and ZFS,
> > yours might not be, but I am pretty certain I am not
> > alone in this other world.
>
> I totally undestand that point, but what exactly do these tools do that
> gpart cannot? On MBR disks? With BSD partitions?
>
> Ever since I found out that gpart can manage *all* on-disk partition =
> formats
> I have not been using anything else. You can create your MBR partitions
> and BSD labels just fine with gpart. At least in all situations I =
> encountered,
> there might of course be edge cases I simply don't know.

On occasion when trying to manipulate a disk label, gpart will refuse to. 
Usually when creating or manipulating a label on a zvol one doesn't want to 
use on the host system, that is destined to be used in a VM. It's simpler 
to create the partitions and labels beforehand, attach the zvol to the VM, 
boot and install (or test) within the VM. In this case one doesn't even 
care if geom sees the "disk" or its partitions on the host because the 
"disk" is destined for use in a VM.

I've created zvols for use by various VMs in this manner.

I agree with Rod's remark that when one is in panic mode working through a 
difficult situation extra tools, not fewer, can help.

Regarding extra tools, I do maintain a full copy of FreeBSD on a USB disk, 
in order to recover from catastrophic situations. They're extremely rare, 
the last of which was the result of a commit that broke loader (or was it a 
boot blocks -- I can't remember the exact details anymore) in 12 or 
13-CURRENT. The extra tools came in handy as I worked through the mess.

>
> gpart is not the "GPT partition tool". It's the universal swiss army =
> knife
> "GEOM partition tool" for all disk partitioning in any format supported.
>
> Kind regards,
> Patrick=
>


-- 
Cheers,
Cy Schubert <Cy.Schubert@cschubert.com>
FreeBSD UNIX:  <cy@FreeBSD.org>   Web:  https://FreeBSD.org
NTP:           <cy@nwtime.org>    Web:  https://nwtime.org

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