systemd/man/repart.d.xml

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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
<refentry id="repart.d" conditional='ENABLE_REPART'>

  <refentryinfo>
    <title>repart.d</title>
    <productname>systemd</productname>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>repart.d</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>repart.d</refname>
    <refpurpose>Partition Definition Files for Automatic Boot-Time Repartitioning</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <para><literallayout><filename>/etc/repart.d/*.conf</filename>
<filename>/run/repart.d/*.conf</filename>
<filename>/usr/lib/repart.d/*.conf</filename>
    </literallayout></para>
  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para><filename>repart.d/*.conf</filename> 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
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-repart</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    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.</para>

    <para>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.</para>

    <para>Currently, support for partition definition files is only implemented for GPT partitition
    tables.</para>

    <para>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.</para>

    <para>Note that these partition definition files do not describe the contents of the partitions, such as
    the file system used. Separate mechanisms, such as
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-growfs</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> and
    <command>systemd-makefs</command> maybe be used to initialize or grow the file systems inside of these
    partitions.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>[Partition] Section Options</title>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Type=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>The GPT partition type UUID to match. This may be a GPT partition type UUID such as
        <constant>4f68bce3-e8cd-4db1-96e7-fbcaf984b709</constant>, or one of the following special
        identifiers:</para>

        <table>
          <title>GPT partition type identifiers</title>

          <tgroup cols='2' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
            <colspec colname="name" />
            <colspec colname="explanation" />

            <thead>
              <row>
                <entry>Identifier</entry>
                <entry>Explanation</entry>
              </row>
            </thead>

            <tbody>
              <row>
                <entry><constant>esp</constant></entry>
                <entry>EFI System Partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>xbootldr</constant></entry>
                <entry>Extended Boot Loader Partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>swap</constant></entry>
                <entry>Swap partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>home</constant></entry>
                <entry>Home (<filename>/home/</filename>) partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>srv</constant></entry>
                <entry>Server data (<filename>/srv/</filename>) partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>var</constant></entry>
                <entry>Variable data (<filename>/var/</filename>) partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>tmp</constant></entry>
                <entry>Temporary data (<filename>/var/tmp/</filename>) partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>linux-generic</constant></entry>
                <entry>Generic Linux file system partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root</constant></entry>
                <entry>Root file system partition type appropriate for the local architecture (an alias for an architecture root file system partition type listed below, e.g. <constant>root-x86-64</constant>)</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-verity</constant></entry>
                <entry>Verity data for the root file system partition for the local architecture</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-secondary</constant></entry>
                <entry>Root file system partition of the secondary architecture of the local architecture; usually the matching 32bit architecture for the local 64bit architecture)</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-secondary-verity</constant></entry>
                <entry>Verity data for the root file system partition of the secondary architecture</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-x86</constant></entry>
                <entry>Root file system partition for the x86 (32bit, aka i386) architecture</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-x86-verity</constant></entry>
                <entry>Verity data for the x86 (32bit) root file system partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-x86-64</constant></entry>
                <entry>Root file system partition for the x86_64 (64bit, aka amd64) architecture</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-x86-64-verity</constant></entry>
                <entry>Verity data for the x86_64 (64bit) root file system partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-arm</constant></entry>
                <entry>Root file system partition for the ARM (32bit) architecture</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-arm-verity</constant></entry>
                <entry>Verity data for the ARM (32bit) root file system partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-arm64</constant></entry>
                <entry>Root file system partition for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) architecture</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-arm64-verity</constant></entry>
                <entry>Verity data for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) root file system partition</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-ia64</constant></entry>
                <entry>Root file system partition for the ia64 architecture</entry>
              </row>

              <row>
                <entry><constant>root-ia64-verity</constant></entry>
                <entry>Verity data for the ia64 root file system partition</entry>
              </row>
            </tbody>
          </tgroup>
        </table>

        <para>This setting defaults to <constant>linux-generic</constant>.</para>

        <para>Most of the partition type UUIDs listed above are defined in the <ulink
        url="https://systemd.io/DISCOVERABLE_PARTITIONS">Discoverable Partitions
        Specification</ulink>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Label=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>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.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Priority=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>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.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Weight=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>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 <varname>SizeMinBytes=</varname>, <varname>SizeMaxBytes=</varname>), 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.</para>

        <para>The <varname>Weight=</varname> 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 <varname>SizeMinBytes=</varname> and <varname>SizeMaxBytes=</varname> with the same
        value in order to fixate the size to one value, in which case the weight has no
        effect.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PaddingWeight=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Similar to <varname>Weight=</varname> 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.</para>

        <para>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.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SizeMinBytes=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SizeMaxBytes=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Specifies minimum and maximum size constraints in bytes. Takes the usual K, M, G, T,
        …  suffixes (to the base of 1024). If <varname>SizeMinBytes=</varname> is specified the partition is
        created at or grown to at least the specified size. If <varname>SizeMaxBytes=</varname> 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 <varname>Weight=</varname>, see above. When
        <varname>SizeMinBytes=</varname> is set equal to <varname>SizeMaxBytes=</varname> 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 <varname>SizeMinBytes=</varname>) or downwards (in case of
        <varname>SizeMaxBytes=</varname>) 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 <varname>Priority=</varname> (see above) the partition might be dropped
        and the placing algorithm restarted. By default no size constraints are set.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PaddingMinBytes=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>PaddingMaxBytes=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Specifies minimum and maximum size constrains in bytes for the free space after the
        partition (the "padding"). Semantics are similar to <varname>SizeMinBytes=</varname> and
        <varname>SizeMaxBytes=</varname>, 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
        <varname>PaddingWeight=</varname> determines the size of the padding applied.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>FactoryReset=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>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.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Examples</title>

    <example>
      <title>Grow the root partition to the full disk size at first boot</title>

      <para>With the following file the root partition is automatically grown to the full disk if possible during boot.</para>

      <para><programlisting># /usr/lib/repart.d/50-root.conf
[Partition]
Type=root
</programlisting></para>
    </example>

    <example>
      <title>Create a swap and home partition automatically on boot, if missing</title>

      <para>The 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.</para>

      <para><programlisting># /usr/lib/repart.d/60-home.conf
[Partition]
Type=home
</programlisting></para>

      <para><programlisting># /usr/lib/repart.d/70-swap.conf
[Partition]
Type=swap
SizeMinBytes=64M
SizeMaxBytes=1G
Priority=1
Weight=333
</programlisting></para>
    </example>

    <example>
      <title>Create B partitions in an A/B Verity setup, if missing</title>

      <para>Let'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.</para>

      <para><programlisting># /usr/lib/repart.d/50-root.conf
[Partition]
Type=root
SizeMinBytes=512M
SizeMaxBytes=512M
</programlisting></para>

      <para><programlisting># /usr/lib/repart.d/60-root-verity.conf
[Partition]
Type=root-verity
SizeMinBytes=64M
SizeMaxBytes=64M
</programlisting></para>

      <para>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.</para>

<para><programlisting># 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
</programlisting></para>
    </example>

  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <para>
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-repart</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
      <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>sfdisk</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    </para>
  </refsect1>

</refentry>