FDASD(8)

✨ FDASD(8) ✨

okay bestie, listen up 💅 this is the fdasd manual page from s390-tools, and it's literally the partitioning tool for DASD devices on Linux for S/390 or zSeries. like, it's giving main character energy in the disk management world 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

fdasd — partitioning tool. that's it, that's the vibe 💖

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

so there's like three modes you can run this in, and each one has its own lil setup:

interactive mode:

fdasd [-s] [-r] [-C] device

command line mode:

fdasd [-s] [-r] [-C] {-a[-k|-l volser]|-i|-p|-c conf_file} [-f
[type,blocksize]] device

help:

fdasd {-h|-v}

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so here's the tea ☕ fdasd writes a partition table to a cdl (compatible disk layout) formatted DASD, and it does this in the form of a VTOC (volume table of contents) for usage with Linux for S/390 or zSeries. if fdasd detects a valid VOL1 volume label, it will use it, otherwise it asks to write a new one. iconic behavior honestly 💁‍♀️

⚠️ Attention: Careless use of fdasd can result in loss of data. like, no cap, this is serious bestie — be careful or you'll literally lose everything 😭

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -h or --help — print usage information, then exit. the "help me help you" option 🥺
• -v or --version — print version information, then exit. for when you wanna know what you're working with 💜
• -s or --silent — suppress messages in non-interactive mode. it's giving "quiet luxury" ✨
• -r or --verbose — provide more verbose output. for when you literally need ALL the details 🔥
• -a or --auto — automatically create a partition using the entire disk in non-interactive mode. set it and forget it energy 💫
• -k or --keep_volser — keeps the Volume Serial Number when writing the Volume Label. this is useful if the volume already has a Serial Number that should not be overwritten. this option is only applicable in non-interactive mode. like, it's protecting what's already there, we love to see it 🫶
• -l volser or --label volser — specify the volume serial. volser is interpreted as ASCII string and is automatically converted to uppercase, padded with blanks and finally converted to EBCDIC to be written to disk. this option is only applicable in non-interactive mode. it's giving transformation journey 💖

🚫 do not use the following reserved volume serial: SCRTCH, PRIVAT, MIGRAT, or Lnnnnn (L with five digit number); these are used as keywords by other operating systems (OS/390). like, those are taken bestie, don't even try it 🙈

a volume serial is 1 through 6 alphanumeric characters or one of the following special characters: $, #, @, %. all other characters are simply ignored. try to avoid using special characters in the volume serial. this may cause problems accessing a disk by volser. in case you really have to use special characters, make sure you are using quotes. in addition there is a special handling for the $ sign. please specify it using \$ if necessary. iykyk 💀

e.g. -l 'a@b\$c#' to get A@B$C#

omitting this parameter causes fdasd to ask for it in case it is needed. so like, it'll prompt you if you forget, no stress 🌸

• -c conf_file or --config conf_file — use this option to create multiple partitions according to specifications in a configuration file, conf_file. the configuration file contains one line for each partition. the lines have this format:

[<first>,<last>,<type>]

where:

<first> and <last> are numbers that specify the first and the last track of the partition. instead of a numerical value, you can specify 'first' for the first possible track on the disk and 'last' for the last possible track on disk. it's giving "beginning to end" realness 💫

<type> is optional and specifies the partition type. <type> can be one of: native, swap, raid, lvm, or gpfs. if omitted, 'native' is used. periodt 💅

the configuration file of the following example specifies three partitions that use the entire disk:

[first,1000]
[1001,2000,swap]
[2001,last,lvm]

like, look at that organization, we love a structured queen 👑

• -i or --volser — print the volume serial, then exit. quick lil peek at your serial number vibes 🎀
• -p or --table — print partition table, then exit. in combination with the -s option fdasd will display a short version of the partition table. it's giving "show me what you got" energy 👀
• -C or --check_host_count — force fdasd to check the host access open count to ensure the device is not online on another operating system instance. like, it's making sure nobody else is using your stuff, very considerate bestie 🫶
• -f [type,blocksize] or --force [type,blocksize] — force fdasd to work on non DASD devices. if fdasd is to be used on a block device that is neither a native DASD nor exposes the proper disk geometry of a DASD of type 3390, then the --force option can be used to assume the geometry of a given device type. the default device type is 3390 and the default block size is 4096. an optional argument of <device type>,<blocksize> can be used to specify type and blocksize explicitly. for example:

-f

has the same effect as

-f3390,4096 or --force=3390,4096

valid device types are: 3390, 3380, 9345 valid block sizes are: 4096, 2048, 1024, 512

you can use the verbose option to get information about the disk geometry that fdasd has computed from device type and block size. it's literally giving you the math 🔢

• device — this parameter specifies the device to be partitioned:

/dev/dasd/xxxx/device

where xxxx is the four-letter devno (device number). 👑

in case your are not using the device file system, please specify:

/dev/dasdx

where x is one or more lowercase letter(s) or any other device node specification configured by udev for kernel 2.6 or higher. so like, it's flexible bestie, use what works 💖

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• dasdfmt(8) — like, check it out if you wanna format your DASD before partitioning, it's the whole ecosystem okurr 💅

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and that's the whole manual bestie! this page is from s390-tools, dated Apr 2006, and it's been out here helping people partition DASD devices since forever. absolute icon behavior, no cap 💜✨