Partition Table (System Administration Guide: Basic Administration)

System Administration Guide: Basic Administration

Partition Table

An important part of the disk label is the partition table, which identifies a disk's slices, the slice boundaries (in cylinders), and the total size of the slices. You can display a disk's partition table by using the format utility. The following table describes partition table terminology.

Table 31–7 Partition Table Terminology


Partition Term	Value	Description
Number	`0-7`	Partition (or slice number). Valid numbers are 0–7.
Tag	`0=UNASSIGNED 1=BOOT 2=ROOT 3=SWAP 4=USR 5=BACKUP 7=VAR 8=HOME`	A numeric value that usually describes the file system mounted on this partition.
Flags	`wm`	The partition is writable and mountable.
	`wu rm`	The partition is writable and unmountable. This is the default state of partitions that are dedicated for swap areas. (However, the `mount` command does not check the “not mountable” flag.)
	`rm`	The partition is read only and mountable.

Partition flags and tags are assigned by convention and require no maintenance.

For more information on displaying the partition table, see How to Display Disk Slice Information or How to Examine a Disk Label.