NetBSD Problem Report #45695

From www@NetBSD.org  Thu Dec  8 01:06:30 2011
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Date: Thu,  8 Dec 2011 01:06:29 +0000 (UTC)
From: gnrp@komkon2.de
Reply-To: gnrp@komkon2.de
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: fdisk(8) has misleading naming of logical partitions
X-Send-Pr-Version: www-1.0

>Number:         45695
>Category:       misc
>Synopsis:       fdisk(8) has misleading naming of logical partitions
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    misc-bug-people
>State:          closed
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Dec 08 01:10:01 +0000 2011
>Closed-Date:    Sat Dec 31 22:19:24 +0000 2011
>Last-Modified:  Sat Dec 31 22:20:01 +0000 2011
>Originator:     Julian Fagir
>Release:        NetBSD-current
>Organization:
>Environment:
>Description:
fdisk(8) has no mention of the word 'logical' partition, but always talks about extended partitions. This is misleading, there is only one extended partition (though several EBRs), the inner ones are usually called logical partitions.

Ultimate proof by wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_partition ;-)

The attached diff should have replaced all the misleading 'extended's by 'logical's.
>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix:
Index: sbin/fdisk/fdisk.8
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/src/sbin/fdisk/fdisk.8,v
retrieving revision 1.73
diff -u -r1.73 fdisk.8
--- sbin/fdisk/fdisk.8  1 Dec 2011 23:14:06 -0000       1.73
+++ sbin/fdisk/fdisk.8  7 Dec 2011 11:38:28 -0000
@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@
 for selecting a partition to be booted.
 There can be at most 4 partitions defined in sector 0,
 one of which can be an extended
-partition which can be split into any number of sub-partitions.
+partition which can be split into any number of sub-partitions (then called 
+logical partitions).
 .Pp
 The boot code in the MBR is usually invoked by the BIOS or firmware,
 and the MBR passes control to the next stage boot code
@@ -164,7 +165,7 @@
 Specify partition slot 3 to be printed or updated.
 .It Fl A Ar ptn_alignment Ns Bq Ar /ptn_0_offset
 Specify the alignment for all partitions and optionally the offset for the
-first partition of the disk and of extended partitions.
+first partition of the disk and of logical partitions.
 If
 .Ar ptn_alignment
 is specified and
@@ -223,11 +224,11 @@
 on an i386 machine, and leave the bootcode empty for other
 machines.
 .It Fl E Ar number
-Specify extended partition
+Specify logical partition
 .Ar number
 to be printed or updated.
-If the specified extended partition doesn't exist on updating partition data
-an additional extended partition will be created.
+If the specified logical partition doesn't exist on updating partition data
+an additional logical partition will be created.
 .It Fl F
 Indicate that
 .Ar device
@@ -436,7 +437,7 @@
 .Pp
 This example disk is divided into four partitions, the last of which is
 an extended partition.
-The sub-partitions of the extended partition are also shown.
+The logical partitions of the extended partition are also shown.
 In this case there is no free space in either the disk or in the extended
 partition.
 .Pp
@@ -489,7 +490,7 @@
 sector values are omitted.
 If
 .Fl v
-is not specified the start of extended partitions and the first partition
+is not specified the start of logical partitions and the first partition
 on the disk are rounded down to include the mandatory red tape in the
 preceding track.
 .It Active
@@ -601,7 +602,8 @@
 .It Pa /usr/mdec/mbr_bootsel
 Default location of i386 bootselect code
 .It Pa /usr/mdec/mbr_ext
-Default location of i386 bootselect for extended partitions
+Default location of i386 bootselect for extended partitions (i.e., NetBSD on 
+logical partitions)
 .El
 .Sh EXAMPLES
 Update MBR partition data of

>Release-Note:

>Audit-Trail:
From: David Holland <dholland-bugs@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: misc/45695: fdisk(8) has misleading naming of logical partitions
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 12:14:16 +0000

 On Thu, Dec 08, 2011 at 01:10:01AM +0000, gnrp@komkon2.de wrote:
  > fdisk(8) has no mention of the word 'logical' partition, but always
  > talks about extended partitions. This is misleading, there is only
  > one extended partition (though several EBRs), the inner ones are
  > usually called logical partitions.

 Doesn't that depend on whose documentation you've been reading?

 -- 
 David A. Holland
 dholland@netbsd.org

From: Julian Djamil Fagir <gnrp@komkon2.de>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: misc/45695: fdisk(8) has misleading naming of logical
 partitions
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 23:32:34 +0100

 Hi,

 >   > fdisk(8) has no mention of the word 'logical' partition, but always
 >   > talks about extended partitions. This is misleading, there is only
 >   > one extended partition (though several EBRs), the inner ones are
 >   > usually called logical partitions.
 >  
 >  Doesn't that depend on whose documentation you've been reading?
 might be, but I've never seen nor heard this naming anywhere before the NetBSD
 fdisk manpage. The distinction logical-extended seems to be the standard.
 Though I absolutely do not want to have Wikipedia as an absolute reference:
 German and English wikipedia state this way, too, and the French one calls
 them 'secondary partitions' and says logical drives are DOS terminology.
 Linux' fdisk manpage uses this way of logical/extended, too.

 Regards, Julian

From: David Holland <dholland-bugs@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: misc/45695: fdisk(8) has misleading naming of logical partitions
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:04:35 +0000

 On Thu, Dec 08, 2011 at 10:35:01PM +0000, Julian Djamil Fagir wrote:
  > > > fdisk(8) has no mention of the word 'logical' partition, but always
  > > > talks about extended partitions. This is misleading, there is only
  > > > one extended partition (though several EBRs), the inner ones are
  > > > usually called logical partitions.
  > >  
  > >  Doesn't that depend on whose documentation you've been reading?
  >
  >  might be, but I've never seen nor heard this naming anywhere
  >  before the NetBSD fdisk manpage. The distinction logical-extended
  >  seems to be the standard.  Though I absolutely do not want to have
  >  Wikipedia as an absolute reference: German and English wikipedia
  >  state this way, too, and the French one calls them 'secondary
  >  partitions' and says logical drives are DOS terminology.  Linux'
  >  fdisk manpage uses this way of logical/extended, too.

 If the rest of the world has standardized on this terminology, we may
 as well follow suit.

 (BTW, there is more than one extended partition; each nested partition
 table contains one to hold the next nested partition table. They
 aren't visible though.)

 -- 
 David A. Holland
 dholland@netbsd.org

State-Changed-From-To: open->closed
State-Changed-By: riz@NetBSD.org
State-Changed-When: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:19:24 +0000
State-Changed-Why:
Patch applied, thanks!


From: "Jeff Rizzo" <riz@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/45695 CVS commit: src/sbin/fdisk
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:18:56 +0000

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	riz
 Date:		Sat Dec 31 22:18:56 UTC 2011

 Modified Files:
 	src/sbin/fdisk: fdisk.8

 Log Message:
 According to most other OSes and documentation sources, an MBR has
 one "extended" partition and the partitions inside that are "logical"
 partitions.  Make fdisk(8) man page follow suit.

 Patch from Julian Fagir in PR#45695.


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.73 -r1.74 src/sbin/fdisk/fdisk.8

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

>Unformatted:

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