repart.dsystemdrepart.d5repart.dPartition Definition Files for Automatic Boot-Time Repartitioning/etc/repart.d/*.conf/run/repart.d/*.conf/usr/lib/repart.d/*.confDescriptionrepart.d/*.conf files describe basic properties of partitions of block
devices of the local system. They may be used to declare types, names and sizes of partitions that shall
exist. The
systemd-repart8
service reads these files and attempts to add new partitions currently missing and enlarge existing
partitions according to these definitions. Operation is generally incremental, i.e. when applied, what
exists already is left intact, and partitions are never shrunk, moved or deleted.These definition files are useful for implementing operating system images that are prepared and
delivered with minimally sized images (for example lacking any state or swap partitions), and which on
first boot automatically take possession of any remaining disk space following a few basic rules.Currently, support for partition definition files is only implemented for GPT partitition
tables.Partition files are generally matched against any partitions already existing on disk in a simple
algorithm: the partition files are sorted by their filename (ignoring the directory prefix), and then
compared in order against existing partitions matching the same partition type UUID. Specifically, the
first existing partition with a specific partition type UUID is assigned the first definition file with
the same partition type UUID, and the second existing partition with a specific type UUID the second
partition file with the same type UUID, and so on. Any left-over partition files that have no matching
existing partition are assumed to define new partition that shall be created. Such partitions are
appended to the end of the partition table, in the order defined by their names utilizing the first
partition slot greater than the highest slot number currently in use. Any existing partitions that have
no matching partition file are left as they are.Note that these definitions may only be used to create and initialize new partitions or to grow
existing ones. In the latter case it will not grow the contained files systems however; separate
mechanisms, such as
systemd-growfs8 may be
used to grow the file systems inside of these partitions. Partitions may also be marked for automatic
growing via the GrowFileSystem= setting, in which case the file system is grown on
first mount by tools that respect this flag. See below for details.[Partition] Section OptionsType=The GPT partition type UUID to match. This may be a GPT partition type UUID such as
4f68bce3-e8cd-4db1-96e7-fbcaf984b709, or one of the following special
identifiers:
GPT partition type identifiersIdentifierExplanationespEFI System PartitionxbootldrExtended Boot Loader PartitionswapSwap partitionhomeHome (/home/) partitionsrvServer data (/srv/) partitionvarVariable data (/var/) partitiontmpTemporary data (/var/tmp/) partitionlinux-genericGeneric Linux file system partitionrootRoot file system partition type appropriate for the local architecture (an alias for an architecture root file system partition type listed below, e.g. root-x86-64)root-verityVerity data for the root file system partition for the local architectureroot-secondaryRoot file system partition of the secondary architecture of the local architecture (usually the matching 32bit architecture for the local 64bit architecture)root-secondary-verityVerity data for the root file system partition of the secondary architectureroot-x86Root file system partition for the x86 (32bit, aka i386) architectureroot-x86-verityVerity data for the x86 (32bit) root file system partitionroot-x86-64Root file system partition for the x86_64 (64bit, aka amd64) architectureroot-x86-64-verityVerity data for the x86_64 (64bit) root file system partitionroot-armRoot file system partition for the ARM (32bit) architectureroot-arm-verityVerity data for the ARM (32bit) root file system partitionroot-arm64Root file system partition for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) architectureroot-arm64-verityVerity data for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) root file system partitionroot-ia64Root file system partition for the ia64 architectureroot-ia64-verityVerity data for the ia64 root file system partitionroot-loongarch64Root file system partition for the LoongArch 64-bit architectureroot-loongarch64-verityVerity data for the LoongArch 64-bit root file system partitionroot-riscv32Root file system partition for the RISC-V 32-bit architectureroot-riscv32-verityVerity data for the RISC-V 32-bit root file system partitionroot-riscv64Root file system partition for the RISC-V 64-bit architectureroot-riscv64-verityVerity data for the RISC-V 64-bit root file system partitionusr/usr/ file system partition type appropriate for the local architecture (an alias for an architecture /usr/ file system partition type listed below, e.g. usr-x86-64)usr-verityVerity data for the /usr/ file system partition for the local architectureusr-secondary/usr/ file system partition of the secondary architecture of the local architecture (usually the matching 32bit architecture for the local 64bit architecture)usr-secondary-verityVerity data for the /usr/ file system partition of the secondary architectureusr-x86/usr/ file system partition for the x86 (32bit, aka i386) architectureusr-x86-verityVerity data for the x86 (32bit) /usr/ file system partitionusr-x86-64/usr/ file system partition for the x86_64 (64bit, aka amd64) architectureusr-x86-64-verityVerity data for the x86_64 (64bit) /usr/ file system partitionusr-arm/usr/ file system partition for the ARM (32bit) architectureusr-arm-verityVerity data for the ARM (32bit) /usr/ file system partitionusr-arm64/usr/ file system partition for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) architectureusr-arm64-verityVerity data for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) /usr/ file system partitionusr-ia64/usr/ file system partition for the ia64 architectureusr-ia64-verityVerity data for the ia64 /usr/ file system partitionusr-loongarch64/usr/ file system partition for the LoongArch 64-bit architectureusr-loongarch64-verityVerity data for the LoongArch 64-bit /usr/ file system partitionusr-riscv32/usr/ file system partition for the RISC-V 32-bit architectureusr-riscv32-verityVerity data for the RISC-V 32-bit /usr/ file system partitionusr-riscv64/usr/ file system partition for the RISC-V 64-bit architectureusr-riscv64-verityVerity data for the RISC-V 64-bit /usr/ file system partition
This setting defaults to linux-generic.Most of the partition type UUIDs listed above are defined in the Discoverable Partitions
Specification.Label=The textual label to assign to the partition if none is assigned yet. Note that this
setting is not used for matching. It is also not used when a label is already set for an existing
partition. It is thus only used when a partition is newly created or when an existing one had a no
label set (that is: an empty label). If not specified a label derived from the partition type is
automatically used. Simple specifier expansion is supported, see below.UUID=The UUID to assign to the partition if none is assigned yet. Note that this
setting is not used for matching. It is also not used when a UUID is already set for an existing
partition. It is thus only used when a partition is newly created or when an existing one had a
all-zero UUID set. If not specified a UUID derived from the partition type is automatically
used.Priority=A numeric priority to assign to this partition, in the range -2147483648…2147483647,
with smaller values indicating higher priority, and higher values indicating smaller priority. This
priority is used in case the configured size constraints on the defined partitions do not permit
fitting all partitions onto the available disk space. If the partitions do not fit, the highest
numeric partition priority of all defined partitions is determined, and all defined partitions with
this priority are removed from the list of new partitions to create (which may be multiple, if the
same priority is used for multiple partitions). The fitting algorithm is then tried again. If the
partitions still do not fit, the now highest numeric partition priority is determined, and the
matching partitions removed too, and so on. Partitions of a priority of 0 or lower are never
removed. If all partitions with a priority above 0 are removed and the partitions still do not fit on
the device the operation fails. Note that this priority has no effect on ordering partitions, for
that use the alphabetical order of the filenames of the partition definition files. Defaults to
0.Weight=A numeric weight to assign to this partition in the range 0…1000000. Available disk
space is assigned the defined partitions according to their relative weights (subject to the size
constraints configured with SizeMinBytes=, SizeMaxBytes=), so
that a partition with weight 2000 gets double the space as one with weight 1000, and a partition with
weight 333 a third of that. Defaults to 1000.The Weight= setting is used to distribute available disk space in an
"elastic" fashion, based on the disk size and existing partitions. If a partition shall have a fixed
size use both SizeMinBytes= and SizeMaxBytes= with the same
value in order to fixate the size to one value, in which case the weight has no
effect.PaddingWeight=Similar to Weight= but sets a weight for the free space after the
partition (the "padding"). When distributing available space the weights of all partitions and all
defined padding is summed, and then each partition and padding gets the fraction defined by its
weight. Defaults to 0, i.e. by default no padding is applied.Padding is useful if empty space shall be left for later additions or a safety margin at the
end of the device or between partitions.SizeMinBytes=SizeMaxBytes=Specifies minimum and maximum size constraints in bytes. Takes the usual K, M, G, T,
… suffixes (to the base of 1024). If SizeMinBytes= is specified the partition is
created at or grown to at least the specified size. If SizeMaxBytes= is specified
the partition is created at or grown to at most the specified size. The precise size is determined
through the weight value value configured with Weight=, see above. When
SizeMinBytes= is set equal to SizeMaxBytes= the configured
weight has no effect as the partition is explicitly sized to the specified fixed value. Note that
partitions are never created smaller than 4096 bytes, and since partitions are never shrunk the
previous size of the partition (in case the partition already exists) is also enforced as lower bound
for the new size. The values should be specified as multiples of 4096 bytes, and are rounded upwards
(in case of SizeMinBytes=) or downwards (in case of
SizeMaxBytes=) otherwise. If the backing device does not provide enough space to
fulfill the constraints placing the partition will fail. For partitions that shall be created,
depending on the setting of Priority= (see above) the partition might be dropped
and the placing algorithm restarted. By default a minimum size constraint of 10M and no maximum size
constraint is set.PaddingMinBytes=PaddingMaxBytes=Specifies minimum and maximum size constraints in bytes for the free space after the
partition (the "padding"). Semantics are similar to SizeMinBytes= and
SizeMaxBytes=, except that unlike partition sizes free space can be shrunk and can
be as small as zero. By default no size constraints on padding are set, so that only
PaddingWeight= determines the size of the padding applied.CopyBlocks=Takes a path to a regular file, block device node or directory, or the special value
auto. If specified and the partition is newly created, the data from the specified
path is written to the newly created partition, on the block level. If a directory is specified, the
backing block device of the file system the directory is on is determined, and the data read directly
from that. This option is useful to efficiently replicate existing file systems onto new partitions
on the block level — for example to build a simple OS installer or an OS image builder.If the special value auto is specified, the source to copy from is
automatically picked up from the running system (or the image specified with
— if used). A partition that matches both the configured partition type (as
declared with Type= described above), and the currently mounted directory
appropriate for that partition type is determined. For example, if the partition type is set to
root the partition backing the root directory (/) is used as
source to copy from — if its partition type is set to root as well. If the
declared type is usr the partition backing /usr/ is used as
source to copy blocks from — if its partition type is set to usr too. The logic is
capable of automatically tracking down the backing partitions for encrypted and Verity-enabled
volumes. CopyBlocks=auto is useful for implementing "self-replicating" systems,
i.e. systems that are their own installer.The file specified here must have a size that is a multiple of the basic block size 512 and not
be empty. If this option is used, the size allocation algorithm is slightly altered: the partition is
created as least as big as required to fit the data in, i.e. the data size is an additional minimum
size value taken into consideration for the allocation algorithm, similar to and in addition to the
SizeMin= value configured above.This option has no effect if the partition it is declared for already exists, i.e. existing
data is never overwritten. Note that the data is copied in before the partition table is updated,
i.e. before the partition actually is persistently created. This provides robustness: it is
guaranteed that the partition either doesn't exist or exists fully populated; it is not possible that
the partition exists but is not or only partially populated.This option cannot be combined with Format= or
CopyFiles=.Format=Takes a file system name, such as ext4, btrfs,
xfs or vfat, or the special value swap. If
specified and the partition is newly created it is formatted with the specified file system (or as
swap device). The file system UUID and label are automatically derived from the partition UUID and
label. If this option is used, the size allocation algorithm is slightly altered: the partition is
created as least as big as required for the minimal file system of the specified type (or 4KiB if the
minimal size is not known).This option has no effect if the partition already exists.Similar to the behaviour of CopyBlocks= the file system is formatted before
the partition is created, ensuring that the partition only ever exists with a fully initialized
file system.This option cannot be combined with CopyBlocks=.CopyFiles=Takes a pair of colon separated absolute file system paths. The first path refers to
a source file or directory on the host, the second path refers to a target in the file system of the
newly created partition and formatted file system. This setting may be used to copy files or
directories from the host into the file system that is created due to the Format=
option. If CopyFiles= is used without Format= specified
explicitly, Format= with a suitable default is implied (currently
ext4, but this may change in the future). This option may be used multiple times
to copy multiple files or directories from host into the newly formatted file system. The colon and
second path may be omitted in which case the source path is also used as the target path (relative to
the root of the newly created file system). If the source path refers to a directory it is copied
recursively.This option has no effect if the partition already exists: it cannot be used to copy additional
files into an existing partition, it may only be used to populate a file system created anew.The copy operation is executed before the file system is registered in the partition table,
thus ensuring that a file system populated this way only ever exists fully initialized.This option cannot be combined with CopyBlocks=.When systemd-repart is invoked with the or
command line switches the source paths specified are taken relative to the
specified root directory or disk image root.MakeDirectories=Takes one or more absolute paths, separated by whitespace, each declaring a directory
to create within the new file system. Behaviour is similar to CopyFiles=, but
instead of copying in a set of files this just creates the specified directories with the default
mode of 0755 owned by the root user and group, plus all their parent directories (with the same
ownership and access mode). To configure directories with different ownership or access mode, use
CopyFiles= and specify a source tree to copy containing appropriately
owned/configured directories. This option may be used more than once to create multiple
directories. When CopyFiles= and MakeDirectories= are used
together the former is applied first. If a directory listed already exists no operation is executed
(in particular, the ownership/access mode of the directories is left as is).The primary usecase for this option is to create a minimal set of directories that may be
mounted over by other partitions contained in the same disk image. For example, a disk image where
the root file system is formatted at first boot might want to automatically pre-create
/usr/ in it this way, so that the usr partition may
over-mount it.Consider using
systemd-tmpfiles8
with its option to pre-create other, more complex directory hierarchies (as
well as other inodes) with fine-grained control of ownership, access modes and other file
attributes.Encrypt=Takes one of off, key-file,
tpm2 and key-file+tpm2 (alternatively, also accepts a boolean
value, which is mapped to off when false, and key-file when
true). Defaults to off. If not off the partition will be
formatted with a LUKS2 superblock, before the blocks configured with CopyBlocks=
are copied in or the file system configured with Format= is created.The LUKS2 UUID is automatically derived from the partition UUID in a stable fashion. If
key-file or key-file+tpm2 is used, a key is added to the LUKS2
superblock, configurable with the option to
systemd-repart. If tpm2 or key-file+tpm2 is
used, a key is added to the LUKS2 superblock that is enrolled to the local TPM2 chip, as configured
with the and options to
systemd-repart.When used this slightly alters the size allocation logic as the implicit, minimal size limits
of Format= and CopyBlocks= are increased by the space necessary
for the LUKS2 superblock (see above).This option has no effect if the partition already exists.FactoryReset=Takes a boolean argument. If specified the partition is marked for removal during a
factory reset operation. This functionality is useful to implement schemes where images can be reset
into their original state by removing partitions and creating them anew. Defaults to off.Flags=Configures the 64bit GPT partition flags field to set for the partition when creating
it. This option has no effect if the partition already exists. If not specified the flags values is
set to all zeroes, except for the three bits that can also be configured via
NoAuto=, ReadOnly= and GrowFileSystem=; see
below for details on the defaults for these three flags. Specify the flags value in hexadecimal (by
prefixing it with 0x), binary (prefix 0b) or decimal (no
prefix).NoAuto=ReadOnly=GrowFileSystem=Configures the No-Auto, Read-Only and Grow-File-System partition flags (bit 63, 60
and 59) of the partition table entry, as defined by the Discoverable Partitions Specification. Only
available for partition types supported by the specification. This option is a friendly way to set
bits 63, 60 and 59 of the partition flags value without setting any of the other bits, and may be set
via Flags= too, see above.If Flags= is used in conjunction with one or more of
NoAuto=/ReadOnly=/GrowFileSystem= the latter
control the value of the relevant flags, i.e. the high-level settings
NoAuto=/ReadOnly=/GrowFileSystem= override
the relevant bits of the low-level setting Flags=.Note that the three flags affect only automatic partition mounting, as implemented by
systemd-gpt-auto-generator8
or the option of various commands (such as
systemd-nspawn1). It
has no effect on explicit mounts, such as those done via mount8 or
fstab5.If both bit 50 and 59 are set for a partition (i.e. the partition is marked both read-only and
marked for file system growing) the latter is typically without effect: the read-only flag takes
precedence in most tools reading these flags, and since growing the file system involves writing to
the partition it is consequently ignored.NoAuto= defaults to off. ReadOnly= defaults to on for
Verity partition types, and off for all others. GrowFileSystem= defaults to on for
all partition types that support it, except if the partition is marked read-only (and thus
effectively, defaults to off for Verity partitions).SpecifiersSpecifiers may be used in the Label=, CopyBlocks=,
CopyFiles=, MakeDirectories= settings. The following expansions are
understood:
Specifiers availableSpecifierMeaningDetails
ExamplesGrow the root partition to the full disk size at first bootWith the following file the root partition is automatically grown to the full disk if possible during boot.# /usr/lib/repart.d/50-root.conf
[Partition]
Type=root
Create a swap and home partition automatically on boot, if missingThe home partition gets all available disk space while the swap partition gets 1G at most and 64M
at least. We set a priority > 0 on the swap partition to ensure the swap partition is not used if not
enough space is available. For every three bytes assigned to the home partition the swap partition gets
assigned one.# /usr/lib/repart.d/60-home.conf
[Partition]
Type=home
# /usr/lib/repart.d/70-swap.conf
[Partition]
Type=swap
SizeMinBytes=64M
SizeMaxBytes=1G
Priority=1
Weight=333
Create B partitions in an A/B Verity setup, if missingLet's say the vendor intends to update OS images in an A/B setup, i.e. with two root partitions
(and two matching Verity partitions) that shall be used alternatingly during upgrades. To minimize
image sizes the original image is shipped only with one root and one Verity partition (the "A" set),
and the second root and Verity partitions (the "B" set) shall be created on first boot on the free
space on the medium.# /usr/lib/repart.d/50-root.conf
[Partition]
Type=root
SizeMinBytes=512M
SizeMaxBytes=512M
# /usr/lib/repart.d/60-root-verity.conf
[Partition]
Type=root-verity
SizeMinBytes=64M
SizeMaxBytes=64M
The definitions above cover the "A" set of root partition (of a fixed 512M size) and Verity
partition for the root partition (of a fixed 64M size). Let's use symlinks to create the "B" set of
partitions, since after all they shall have the same properties and sizes as the "A" set.# ln -s 50-root.conf /usr/lib/repart.d/70-root-b.conf
# ln -s 60-root-verity.conf /usr/lib/repart.d/80-root-verity-b.conf
See Alsosystemd1,
systemd-repart8,
sfdisk8,
systemd-cryptenroll1