You can use the kpartx utility to map the partitions of any block device or file that contains a partition table and partition images. kpartx reads the partition table and creates device files for the partitions in /dev/mapper. Each device file represents a disk volume or a disk partition on a device or within an image file.

The -l option lists any partitions that it finds, for example in an installation image file:

# kpartx -l system.img
loop0p1 : 0 204800 /dev/loop0 2048
loop0p2 : 0 12288000 /dev/loop0 206848
loop0p3 : 0 4096000 /dev/loop0 212494848
loop0p4 : 0 2 /dev/loop0 16590848

This output shows that the drive image contains four partitions, and the first column are the names of the device files that can be created in /dev/mapper.

The -a option creates the device mappings:

# kpartx -a system.img
# ls /dev/mapper
control  loop0p1  loop0p2  loop0p3  loop0p4

If a partition contains a file system, you can mount it and view the files that it contains, for example:

# mkdir /mnt/sysimage
# mount /dev/mapper/loop0p1 /mnt/sysimage
# ls /mnt/sysimage
config-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64
config-2.6.32-300.3.1.el6uek.x86_64
efi
grub
initramfs-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64.img
initramfs-2.6.32-300.3.1.el6uek.x86_64.img
...
# umount /mnt/sysimage

The -d option removes the device mappings:

# kpartx -d system.img
# ls /dev/mapper
control

For more information, see the kpartx(8) manual page.