[parted-devel] [PATCH 1/2] libparted: enforce dos partition limit

[Phillip Susi]

On 1/18/2012 10:17 AM, Vladimir 'φ-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko wrote:
> Ideally there should be a function allowing to know how many entries
> this table has.
> If kernel API is unmodifiable and has inherent limit IMHO the best
> strategy is to make this limit pertain only to kernel-specific parts.

There are.  There is one to get the max allowed by the kernel, and one
to get the max allowed by the partition table.  The problem I fixed is
that the dos partition table claimed to only allow 16 so when you
exceeded the limit, the kernel wouldn't get updated.  There has to be a
limit somewhere and it needs to actually be enforced to prevent the
problem updating the kernel.  Of course, until rather recently the
kernel limit was also 16.

> I'll see when I can get an appointment with the doctor. I've had
> problems with hitting those limits when I created ultra-multi-boot disk

You've created 64 partitions on a disk?  Maybe you should switch to gpt?
 Even that only gets you twice as many -- 128, or better yet, use LVM.

I don't see a problem with raising the limit further than 64 if you
really think it's needed.