[parted-devel] Bug: Removal of BLKPG causes regression of ability to manipulate disks with other partitions in use

[Phillip Susi]

On 3/19/2010 9:24 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> Whether extended partitions can exist is partition-table-specific, of course.
> I assume you realize this and that any changes will work just as well
> with, say, GPT partition tables.

Right.. with msdos partitions we only need to worry about renumbering of
extended partitions since the kernel seems fine with an unused partition
2 between partitions 1 and 3, and since the slots are hard coded the
numbers don't change.  I've not had experience with others yet, but I
have been reading up on GPT lately and I guess that the kernel just
numbers all partitions it finds starting with 1, so any removal results
in renumbering?  Or does the kernel only pay attention to partition
types it recognizes?

How does parted currently handle it when you try to delete the extended
partition?  It seems it is smart enough to check if all logical
partitions are not in use before it allows you to remove the extended
partition, thus destroying all logical partitions.  Perhaps this logic
can be extended to handle this case.