DVHTOOL(8)

💾 DVHTOOL(8) — the disk volume header bestie 💅

ok so we're doing dvhtool(8) today, from the System Manager's Manual, and honestly? she's niche but she ATE. sit down, grab a snack 🍓

✨ NAME ✨

dvhtool — Disk volume header manipulation tool 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dvhtool --device devicename [ option ]

dvhtool -d devicename [ option ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ok so dvhtool is a utility, and her whole thing is: displaying SGI disk partition and volume header information, plus copying files to and from the volume header. two jobs. she does both. icon behavior honestly 👑

she's similar to the IRIX(tm) utility of the same name, but bestie, the options and usage are quite different. also the IRIX utility can't display partition and boot file information. so like... she's the upgraded version. no cap.

so what even is the disk volume header? it includes the disk partition table and the volume directory. the volume directory is an index to the files stored in the volume header part of the disk. those files can literally be anything, but they're usually standalone programs (like sash, the SGI standalone shell). the space available for files is usually limited to one, two or a few megabytes — and you can only change that by repartitioning the disk with fx, the SGI disk formatting and partitioning tool, or fdisk. so like, don't just vibe your way into more space, that's not a thing 💀

you must be root to invoke dvhtool. non-negotiable. main character energy requires main character permissions.

the device name can be /dev/sda for the first disk, /dev/sdb for the second, and so on. and dvhtool will also work on a file image of a disk volume header. so if you don't have the real hardware, you can still play 🌈

💖 OPTIONS 💖

• -d, --device devicename — specify the volume header device name (or file image)
• --print-volume-header — show volume header data only
• --print-volume-directory — show volume table of contents
• --print-partitions — show partition data
• --print-all — equivalent to all three above options (yes bestie, all three, she's giving combo meal 🍟)
• --vh-remove name — remove volhdr file name.
• --vh-to-unix name file — copy volhdr file name to Unix file file
• --unix-to-vh file name — copy Unix file file to volhdr as name
• --help — show usage information

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• fdisk(8)
• IRIX tools: fx(1M), prtvtoc(1M), vh(7M).

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

dvhtool was written by Ralf Baechle <ralf@oss.sgi.com>, Keith M. Wesolowski <wesolows@foobazco.org>, Tor Arntsen <tor@spacetec.no>, Guido Guenther <agx@debian.org>. four whole legends, we stan a collaborative effort 💜

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one's a 4th Berkeley Distribution situation, dated July 2000 — old school but still slaying ✨💅 no notes, periodt 🎀