cfdisk [options] [device]
cfdisk is a curses-based program for partitioning any block device. The default device is /dev/sda.
Note that cfdisk provides basic partitioning functionality with a user-friendly interface. If you need advanced features, use fdisk(8) instead.
Since version 2.25 cfdisk supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk labels, but no longer provides any functionality for CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing. CHS has never been important for Linux, and this addressing concept does not make any sense for new devices.
Since version 2.25 cfdisk also does not provide a 'print' command any more. This functionality is provided by the utilities partx(8) and lsblk(8) in a very comfortable and rich way.
If you want to remove an old partition table from a device, use wipefs(8).
The commands for cfdisk can be entered by pressing the corresponding key (pressing Enter after the command is not necessary). Here is a list of the available commands:
The size may be followed by a multiplicative suffix: KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB").
The script files are compatible between cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk and other libfdisk applications. For more details see sfdisk(8).
It is also possible to load an sfdisk-script into cfdisk if there is no partition table on the device or when you start cfdisk with the --zero command-line option.
The re-reading of the partition table does not always work. In such a case you need to inform the kernel about any new partitions by using partprobe(8) or partx(8), or by rebooting the system.
All commands can be entered with either uppercase or lowercase letters (except for Write). When in a submenu or at a prompt, you can hit the Esc key to return to the main menu.
Implicit coloring can be disabled by creating the empty file /etc/terminal-colors.d/cfdisk.disable.
See terminal-colors.d(5) for more details about colorization configuration.
cfdisk does not support color customization with a color-scheme file.
fdisk(8), sfdisk(8), parted(8), partprobe(8), partx(8)
Karel Zak <firstname.lastname@example.org>
The current cfdisk implementation is based on the original cfdisk from Kevin E. Martin (email@example.com).
The cfdisk command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.