Re: libparted-fs-resize: HFS/FAT file system resizing library

[Curtis Gedak]

On 12-02-06 04:05 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> > >      parted provides a new library, libparted-fs-resize, for resizing
> > >      HFS+ and FAT file systems.  This is the subset of the FS-manipulation
> > >      functionality removed in parted-3.0 for which we have found no free
> > >      alternative.  That library provides only these entry points:
> > >        ped_file_system_close
> > >        ped_file_system_get_resize_constraint
> > >        ped_file_system_open
> > >        ped_file_system_resize
> > >      so when using it you must also link with libparted.
> > >
> > > Feedback welcome, the sooner the better.
> > Then when I check the /usr/local/include/parted directory, the
> > filesys.h file contains three of the above listed functions.  However,
> > the ped_file_system_get_resize_constraint function is missing.
> From NEWS:
> Hi Curtis,
> Thanks a lot for the speedy feedback.
> I did indeed forget to declare that function in the filesys.h.

Hi Jim,

Thank you for all your work on parted.  Your latest diff file seems to 
have done the trick.  :)

My testing with GParted and parted-git and the 10 patches and 1 diff 
file applied has gone very well on a 512 byte sector disk drive.

With this new library I have been able to successfully:
 - shrink HFS and HFS+ file systems.
 - grow and shrink FAT16 and FAT32 file systems.

While testing I did discover the following two limitations:

A)  With FAT16 when shrinking or growing, the partition must be greater 
than 32 MiB in size.  Smaller sizes result in warnings that libparted 
does not support the operation.

B)  With FAT32 when shrinking or growing, the partition must be greater 
than 256 MiB in size.
Smaller sizes result in warnings that libparted does not support the 
operation.

There are some subtle exceptions to these limitations when the partition 
size is exactly 32 MiB or 256 MiB respectively.

These limitations are not of concern to me since I believe these 
limitations also existed in parted prior to version 3.0.


Now that you have this resize functionality working again, are there any 
specific tests that you would like me to perform?

Also do you plan to create a new official release of parted that 
includes the libparted-fs-resize library?

Best regards,
Curtis Gedak