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doing a fdisk -l is a quite convenient command, but how to make fidsk print the partition size in a unit such as MB or GB?

Andrew Tobey
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  • You might want to look at some of the alternatives to `fdisk -l` here. http://serverfault.com/questions/190685/whats-the-best-way-to-get-info-about-currently-unmounted-drives/190700?noredirect=1#comment744104_190700 – Zoredache Aug 14 '14 at 20:11

2 Answers2

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You can't. Use something else like parted -l instead.

See man parted for more information.

gparent
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Sven
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  • thx. So GPT is what Microsoft grants us with by introducing Windows 8? – Andrew Tobey Aug 14 '14 at 18:19
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    GPT has nothing to do with Microsoft. MBR has just reached its limits and needed a proper replacement able to handle partitions bigger than 2TB and more than 4 primary partitions. By the way, GPT was introduced by Intel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table – Broco Aug 14 '14 at 18:50
  • FWIW fdisk handles GPT fine. See `man fdisk` :) – Jeremy Davis Nov 19 '15 at 08:46
  • @JeremyDavis: Citing `man fdisk` (on EL 6,7, Ubuntu 14.04): `fdisk does not understand GUID partition tables (GPTs) and it is not designed for large partitions. In these cases, use the more advanced GNU parted(8).` This is very clear and also printed if you try to edit a GPT disk with `fdisk`. – Sven Nov 19 '15 at 09:17
  • @Sven: not sure what version Ubuntu etc have but Debian Jessie has v2.25.2 and it definitely handles GPT. I used it just the other day to create a new partition on a disk with a GPT! I just posted a copy/paste from one of my machines. Also here is copy of the man that matches my machines: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/fdisk.8.html Note the explicit recommendation to use GPT. A quick google shows that support for GPT was added to fdisk in 2012: http://git.kernel.org/cgit/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git/commit/?id=766d5156c43b784700d28d1c1141008b2bf35ed7 – Jeremy Davis Nov 20 '15 at 04:58
  • Correction to my last comment; I'm not actually sure what version of fdisk is in Debian Jessie; but it is a part of the 'essential" util-linux package which is v2.25.2... – Jeremy Davis Nov 20 '15 at 05:09
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I'm not sure about other OS; but in Debian Jessie it displays in MB & GB by default.

E.g.:

# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 1 TiB, 1120239009792 bytes, 2187966816 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 1D01BF33-C584-4C49-A05F-341CFB8E2D24

Device         Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1         34       2047       2014  1007K BIOS boot
/dev/sda2       2048     262143     260096   127M EFI System
/dev/sda3     262144  234441614  234179471 111.7G Linux LVM
/dev/sda4  234442752 2187966782 1953524031 931.5G Linux filesystem

Note the 5th column "Size"; K = KiB; M = MiB & G = GiB

Jeremy Davis
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  • +1, same in 16.04: it displays the size in GB. `parted -l` is nice though, because start/end are also in human readable units. – Benoit Duffez May 12 '17 at 09:12
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    MB is not MiB as the original post requested! – d hee Dec 14 '17 at 02:30
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    @dhee - Whilst technically you are correct, I would argue that considering that most people (inc Windows, manufacturers of RAM, USB sticks, CD/DVD/BluRay, etc) use KB/MB/GB when they really mean KiB/MiB/GiB, it was a legitimate answer. AFAIK, HDD manufacturers and Apple products are the only ones that use MB/GB/TB when they really mean it. I would further argue that the base 10 units are rarely ever useful on a binary system. I would certainly concede on your point if the OP was explicit that he indeed wanted MegaBytes (i.e. 1000 x 1000 Bytes). – Jeremy Davis Dec 15 '17 at 03:42
  • PS @dhee - thanks for commenting why you downvoted. Whilst I still disagree, and stand by my above response to your comment, I commend your integrity! Upvote for your comment, despite the fact I disagree! :) – Jeremy Davis Dec 15 '17 at 05:12