ldm_partition(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 ldm_partition(9) 💖

hey bestie, welcome to ldm_partition(9) — straight from the Kernel API Manual. This one is literally the dynamic-disk detector/handler, and it's giving “I will check the device and then handle the partitions” energy. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

ldm_partition — find out whether a device is a dynamic disk and handle it. okay so that's the whole assignment, and the function is doing it. 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

int ldm_partition (struct parsed_partitions *state );

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

  • state — the partition check state, including the device holding the LDM Database. bestie, this is where the LDM Database info lives. 🗂️

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So this determines whether the device bdev is a dynamic disk. If it is, it creates the partitions necessary in the gendisk structure pointed to by hd. no cap, that's the whole flow. ✨

It creates a dummy device 1, which contains the LDM database, and then it creates each partition described by the LDM database in sequence as devices 2+. For example, if the device is hda, we would have: hda1: LDM database, hda2, hda3, and so on: the actual data containing partitions. the way that numbering stacks up is honestly kind of iconic. 🎀

🔥 RETURN 🔥

Here's the return-value vibe check, bestie:

  • 1 — Success, state->disk is a dynamic disk and we handled it. slay. 💅
  • 0 — Success, state->disk is not a dynamic disk. okay, no dynamic-disk situation here. 🫶
  • -1 — An error occurred before enough information had been read Or state->disk is a dynamic disk, but it may be corrupted. not the cute outcome, ngl. 😭

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./block/partitions/ldm.c — and bestie, the whole LDM function family is right here, iykyk:

Source/version ./block/partitions • dated October 2026 • ldm_partition(9) is out, mwah 💋🧚

📦 where this page comes from