[parted-devel] Partition renumbering after a remove

[Joel Granados]

On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 09:36:41AM -0600, Curtis Gedak wrote:
> Joel Granados wrote:
>> Hello list.
>>
>> The question is: why does parted call renumber partition funcion every
>> time it removes/deletes a partition?
> Hi Joel,
>
> Perhaps it has something to do with MSDOS partition tables and logical  
> partitions?
>
> When a logical partition is deleted, it affects the partition numbers of  
> each logical partition that follow in the chain.
>
> For example, an extended partition contains four logical partitions A,  
> B, C, and D. These logical partitions are accessed by the operating  
> system as follows:
>
>    *  Partition A as /dev/sda5.
>    *  Partition B as /dev/sda6.
>    *  Partition C as /dev/sda7.
>    *  Partition D as /dev/sda8.
>
> If partition B is deleted, then the remaining logical partitions will be  
> accessed by the operating system as follows:

Yes, but this is due to parted renumbering.  That is, if parted did not
renumber the partitions, the OS would access the partitions as sda5 sda7
sda8.

>
>    *  Partition A as /dev/sda5.
>    *  Partition C as /dev/sda6. Note the change in device name.
>    *  Partition D as /dev/sda7. Note the change in device name.
>
> This is just a guess since I haven't looked into the renumber partition  
> function.  :-)
>
> Regards,
> Curtis Gedak
>
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-- 
Joel Andres Granados
Brno, Czech Republic, Red Hat.