Re: 1.4.4 doesnt recognize all pdisk partitions

[Ethan Benson]

On Sat, Nov 04, 2000 at 03:58:06PM -0200, Andrew Clausen wrote:
> Olaf Hering wrote:
> > You don't have to create these partition types, but you should display
> > them. Maybe one wants to create 2 partitions of one existing partition.
> 
> It's not that simple.  If it's really a free partition, then you are
> allowed to make other partitions on top of it.  If it's a used partition
> (with data) then you can't.

i have removed this free space many times and have found nothing
break, i never allow any of my disks to have ANY wasted space like
this, its not used for anything, its just an artifact.  

> Not quite.  Parted creates free-space partitions for all free space,
> as well (Mac partition tools expect free-space partitions).  However,
> Parted will mangle them lots!

as its allowed to do, Apple_Free is a reserved partition type, its
purpose is to be destroyed/reallocated into real partitions.  you
cannot store data here and expect it to be safe.  the name means
nothing, its just a label, like a label on an HFS filesystem.  only
GNU/Linux has added any meaning to certain names (swap, root)

> > > > Please don't ignore these partitions when the name is not "Extra".
> > >
> > > Ethan/anyone: is this reasonable?  Are there any other names we should
> > > check for?
> > 
> > I noticed only "Extra" as name for the last partition
> > .

if you leave a second `hole' when creating partitions with Drive setup
you will find an Apple_Free partition named `Extra' there too.  you
can do this with Drive Setup, but since im not running macos i cannot
make an example partition table for you.  

> Yeah, but that doesn't rule out other programs...

i don't remember what hard disk toolkit uses as a name for free space
partitions, i never allow free space partitions to live on my disks
;-)  but like i have said its irrelevant, anything expecting to be
able to store data safely on an Apple_Free partition is buggy and
should be fixed to stop using Apple_Free for anything.  

technically you cannot use *ANY* Apple_* type and expect to store data
safely there since apple considers all these types as reserved.  3rd
parties needing special partitions (ie not drivers or HFS partitions)
should create thier own type which does not start with Apple_ so they
can be assured it will be ignored by apple software.  

apple could decided that Apple_UNIX_SVR2 partitions are to be
automatically used as swap partitions by MacOSX tomorrow and nobody
can complain.  apple has a policy on partition types, its published
and LONG known, in it Apple_Free is defined to serve the purpose
Andrew (and every other mac partitioner) uses it for.  

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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