PARTCLONE(8)

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version 0.3.52 · 14 versions
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PARTCLONE(8) 🎀

okay bestie, welcome to the Partclone User Manual — this is partclone(8), and it's literally the utility for clone and restore a partition. Buckle up. 💖

✨ NAME ✨

partclone — The utility for clone and restore a partition. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

       partclone.[fstype] {[-c | --clone]} {[-r | --restore]}
                          {[-b | --dev-to-dev]} {[-s | --source] source}
                          {[[-o | --output] [-O | --overwrite]] target}
                          [[-dX | --debug=X]] [[--restore_raw_file]]
                          [[-z | --buffer_size]] [[-N | --ncurses]]
                          [[-q | --quiet]] [[-f | --UI-fresh]] [[-F | --force]]
                          [[-I | --ignore_fschk]] [[-i | --ignore_crc]]
                          [[-C | --nocheck]] [[-R | --rescue]]
                          [[-L | --logfile] logfile] [[-X | --compresscmd]]
                          [[-D | --domain]] [[--offset_domain]]
                          [[-aX | --checksum-mode=X]]
                          [[-kX | --blocks-per-checksum=X]]
                          [[-K | --no-reseed]] [[-w | --skip_write_error]]
                          [[-E | --offset=X]] [[-T | --btfiles]]
                          [[-t | --btfiles_torrent]] [[-n | --note]]
                          [[-B | --no_block_detail]] [[--binary-prefix]]
                          [[--prog-second]] [[--json-status] FILE]
                          [[--json-fresh] N] [[--write-direct-io]]
                          [[--read-direct-io]]
yes, the synopsis literally includes -K | --no-reseed and -X | --compresscmd, bestie — keep those exact, iykyk. 💀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

partclone.[fstype] is part of the Partclone project. Partclone gives you utilities to back up used blocks, and it's designed for higher filesystem compatibility by using existing libraries — for example, e2fslibs is used to read the used block of an ext2 partition. ✨

Partclone's supported filesystems include btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, and zfs for LINUX. It also supports some non-Linux operating systems, like: NTFS, FAT, and EXFAT (for Windows), HFS plus (APPLE MAC OS), UFS2 (FreeBSD), VMFS (VMWare Vsphere), and MINIX (MINIX3). 💖

All partclone utils can be run like partclone.[fstype], and it's very similar to fsck or mkfs. For example, for backup/restore hfsplus, just run partclone.hfsp. 🎀

Here's the filesystem-to-utility glow-up table, but make it a list because we're cute like that:

  • File System: btrfs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.btrfs 🌈
  • File System: ext2, ext3, ext4 → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.[ext2 | ext3 | ext4] 🌸
  • File System: reiserfs 3.5 → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.reiserfs 🦋
  • File System: reiser 4 → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.reiser4 ✨
  • File System: xfs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.xfs 💜
  • File System: ufs | ufs2 → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.ufs 💅
  • File System: jfs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.jfs 🎀
  • File System: hfs plusfs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.[hfs+ | hfsplus] 🍓
  • File System: vmfs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.[vmfs | vmfs5] 🌟
  • File System: ntfs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.ntfs 🔥
  • File System: fat12, fat16, fat32 → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.[fat12 | fat16 | fat32] 👑
  • File System: exfat → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.exfat 💖
  • File System: minix → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.minix 🧚
  • File System: f2fs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.f2fs 🌸
  • File System: nilfs2 → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.nilfs2 🦋
  • File System: apfs → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.apfs ✨
  • File System: zfs (stripe pool) → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.zfs 💜
  • File System: openzfs (stripe pool) → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.openzfs 💅
  • File System: others (Not Supported FS) → partclone.[fstype]: partclone.imager 😭

💅 OPTIONS 💅

The program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (-). A summary of options is included below. 🫶

  • -s FILE, --source FILE — Source FILE. The FILE could be an image file (made by partclone) or a device, depending on your action. Normally, backup source is a device, and restore source is an image file. Receiving data from a pipeline is supported ONLY for restoring — just ignore -s, or use - to mean receive data from stdin. 🌈
  • -o FILE, --output FILE — Output FILE. The FILE could be an image file (partclone will generate it) or a device, depending on your action. Normally, backup output goes to an image file and restore output goes to a device. Sending data to a pipeline is also supported ONLY for back-up — just ignore -o, or use - to mean send data to stdout. 💖
  • -O FILE, --overwrite FILE — Overwrite FILE, overwriting if it exists. ⚠️
  • -W FILE, --restore_raw_file FILE — create special raw file for loop device. 🎀
  • -c, --clone — Save partition to the special image format. ✨
  • -r, --restore — Restore partition from the special image format. 🦋
  • -b, --dev-to-dev — Local device-to-device copy on-the-fly; source and output are both devices. 🔥
  • -D, --domain — Create GNU Ddrescue domain log file from source device. This is a human-readable file in which + marks used block areas and ? marks free areas. 👑
  • --offset_domain=X — Add X (in bytes) to all positions reported in the domain log file. 💜
  • --restore_raw_file — Creating special raw file for loop device. 💅
  • -L FILE, --logfile FILE — put special path to record partclone log information. (default /var/log/partclone.log) 🌸
  • -R, --rescue — Continue after disk read errors. 😭
  • -C, --no_check — Don't check device size and free space. 🫶
  • -N, --ncurses — Using Ncurses Text User Interface. 🎀
  • -I, --ignore_fschk — Ignore filesystem check. ✨
  • -i, --ignore_crc — Ignore crc check error. 🦋
  • -F, --force — Force progress. 🔥
  • -f sec, --UI-fresh sec — put special second to different interval. 💖
  • -z size, --buffer_size size — Read/write buffer size (default: 1048576) 💜
  • -q, --quiet — Disable progress message. 🤫
  • -dlevel, --debug level — Set the debug level [1|2|3] 🐛
  • -x, --compresscmd CMD — Start CMD as an output pipe to compress the cloned image. 🌈
  • -aX, --checksum-mode=X — Checksum formula to use to add error detection. where X: 💅
    • 0: No checksum (no slowdown, smallest image)
    • 1: CRC32 (Fast to compute, basic detection)
    • 2: xxHash64 extremely fast non-cryptographic hash algorithm
    • 3: xxHash128 Strong and extremely fast, best detection
  • -kX, --blocks-per-checksum=X — Write one checksum for every X blocks. ✨
  • -w, --skip_write_error — Continue restore while write errors. 😭
  • --write-direct-io — Writing data to TARGET partition without cache. 🔥
  • --read-direct-io — Reading data from SOURCE partition without cache. 🦋
  • -B, --no_block_detail — Show progress message without block detail. 🎀
  • --binary-prefix — Show progress with bit size (default is MB, GB...) 🌸
  • --prog-second — Show progress in seconds (default is minute) ⏱️
  • --json-status[=FILE] — Write progress status to FILE in JSON format, periodically refreshed, so external tools can poll the clone/restore status (default FILE: /var/log/partclone.json) 💖
  • --json-fresh=N — JSON status update interval in seconds (default: 1, minimum: 1) 🫶
  • -E, --offset=X — Add offset X (bytes) to OUTPUT. 💜
  • -T, --btfiles — Restore block as file for ClonezillaBT. 👑
  • -t, --btfiles_torrent — Restore block as file for ClonezillaBT but only generate torrent. 🌈
  • -n, --note NOTE — Display Message Note (128 words). 📝
  • -h, --help — Show summary of options. 🙈
  • -v, --version — Show version of program. ⭐

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /var/log/partclone.log — The log file of partclone. 🌸
  • /var/log/partclone.json — The default JSON progress status file written when --json-status is given without FILE. 💖

🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

            clone /dev/hda1 to hda1.img and display debug information.
              partclone.ext3 -c -d -s /dev/hda1 -o hda1.img

            restore /dev/hda1 from hda1.img and display debug information.
              partclone.extfs -r -d -s hda1.img -o /dev/hda1

            restore image from clonezilla (split, gzip,) with stdin source
              cat sda1.ext3-ptcl-img.gz.a* | gunzip -c | partclone.ext3 -d -r -s - -o /dev/sda1

💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

The following diagnostics may be issued on stderr: 😭

partclone provides some return codes, that can be used in scripts:

  • 0 — Program exited successfully. 👑
  • 1 — Clone or Restore seem failed. 💀

🐛 BUGS 🐛

Report bugs to thomas@clonezilla.org or http://partclone.org. 🫶

You can get support at http://partclone.org 💖

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

partclone(8), partclone.chkimg(8), partclone.restore(8), partclone.dd(8), partclone.info(8) ✨

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Yu-Chin Tsai <thomas@clonezilla.org> 🎀

Copyright © 2007 Yu-Chin Tsai 💖

This manual page was written for the Debian system (and may be used by others). 🌸

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or (at your option) any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. 🦋

On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL. 💅

💖 cute sign-off: this page is from partclone, dated 10/28/2026, and yes it’s PARTCLONE(8) — periodt. 🫶

📦 where this page comes from