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

[Phillip Susi]

On 1/23/2012 2:19 PM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> The point is that the GPT format dictates we specify a PTE array size
> in the header, while with a dos partition table, there is no inherent
> limitation: it's an arbitrarily-long linked list of partition entries.

I understand that, but as far as libparted goes, all partition tables
have a limit.  Whatever they claim their limit is, should actually be
correct.

> Any PTE-count limitation we impose when writing a dos partition table
> is artificial or system-specific, and hence undesirable.
> What if we want to create a partition table that will never
> be used on a linux-based system?  Why should it suffer the
> limitations of the host kernel?

It doesn't need to be limited by the host kernel, it just needs to
report the correct limit, whatever that limit may be.  I increased it to
64 because I figured that would be plenty, but you can make it 65535 and
that would be fine.