kpartx - Man Page

• Add partition mappings: kpartx -a whole_disk.img
• Delete partition mappings: kpartx -d whole_disk.img
• List partition mappings: kpartx -l whole_disk.img

tldr.sh

kpartx [-a|-d|-u|-l] [-r] [-p] [-f] [-g] [-s|-n] [-v] wholedisk

This tool, derived from util-linux' partx, reads partition tables on specified device and create device maps over partitions segments detected. It is called from hotplug upon device maps creation and deletion.

-a

Add partition mappings.

-d

Delete partition mappings.

-u

Update partition mappings.

-l

List partition mappings that would be added -a.

-r

Read-only partition mappings.

-p

Set device name-partition number delimiter.

-f

Force creation of mappings; overrides 'no_partitions' feature.

-g

Force GUID partition table (GPT).

-s

Sync mode (Default). Don't return until the partitions are created.

-n

Nosync mode. Return before the partitions are created.

-v

Operate verbosely.

To mount all the partitions in a raw disk image:

kpartx -av disk.img

This will output lines such as:

add map loop1p1 (254:4): 0 409597 linear 7:1 3

The loop1p1 is the name of a device file under /dev/mapper which you can use to access the partition, for example to fsck it:

fsck /dev/mapper/loop1p1

When you're done, you need to remove the devices:

kpartx -d disk.img

multipath(8) multipathd(8) hotplug(8)

This man page was assembled By Patrick Caulfield for the Debian project.

multipath-tools was developed by Christophe Varoqui <christophe.varoqui@opensvc.com> and others.

guestfs(3), multipath(8), multipathd(8).