disklabel(8) BSD System Manager's Manual disklabel(8)
NAME
disklabel -- manipulate and query an Apple Label disk label
SYNOPSIS
disklabel -create disk-device [-msize=size] [property=value] [...]
disklabel -status disk-device
disklabel -properties disk-device [property[=value]] [...]
disklabel -destroy disk-device
DESCRIPTION
The disklabel utility manipulates ``Apple Label'' partition metadata.
``Apple Label'' partitions allow for a disk device to have a consistent
name, ownership, and permissions across reboots, even though uses a
dynamic pseudofilesystem for /dev.
The ``Apple Label'' partition uses a set of metadata (as a plist) in a
reserved area of the partition. This metadata describes the owner, name,
and so forth.
When -create is used, the -msize argument can specify the size of meta-
data area; the default is 128Kbytes. The default size unit is bytes, but
the following suffixes may be used to multiply by the given factor: ``b''
(512), ``k'' (1024), ``m'' (1048576), and ``g'' (1073741824).
Although any key-value pair can be specified for the properties, certain
keys are used by the system:
owner-uid The user (as either a string or numeric value) to own the
device.
owner-gid The group (as either a string or numeric value) associated
with the device.
owner-mode The permissions (as a numeric value) for the device.
dev-name The name for the device.
If the owner-uid and owner-gid properties are given as strings, the
disklabel utility will attempt to look up the names (as users or groups,
as appropriate), and will store the numeric values in the metadata. If
it cannot find the names, and the values are not given as numbers, it
will print an error, and not store the key/value pairs in the metadata.
The owner-mode property may be given in decimal, or in octal by using a
preceding ``0'' (e.g., ``0666'').
Any property may be forced to be treated as a string by enclosing it in
double-quotation marks; bear in mind that shell escapes will probably be
necessary in this sitation.
The -properties directive can print out all keys (if no arguments are
given), a requested set of keys (if a list of key names is given), or can
modify (or add) keys (if a key-value pairs are given).
disklabel also maintains a checksum of the metadata; the -status direc-
tive verifies this checksum.
EXAMPLES
The following example will create a device with 1MByte of metadata area,
owned by fred, with a device name of fred, and be writable by fred:
disklabel -create /dev/rdisk1s1 -msize=1M owner-uid=fred dev-
name=fred owner-mode=0644
The following example will then print out the key-value pairs from the
above:
disklabel -properties /dev/rdisk1s1
SEE ALSO
pdisk(8)
BSD September 3, 2004 BSD
Mac OS X 10.6 - Generated Thu Sep 17 20:25:49 CDT 2009