REPART.D(5)

NAME
repart.d - Partition Definition Files for Automatic Boot-Time Repartitioning

SYNOPSIS

/etc/repart.d/*.conf
/run/repart.d/*.conf
/usr/lib/repart.d/*.conf

DESCRIPTION

repart.d/*.conf files describe basic properties of partitions of block devices of the local system. They may be used to declare types, names and sizes of partitions that shall exist. The systemd-repart(8) service reads these files and attempts to add new partitions currently missing and enlarge existing partitions according to these definitions. Operation is generally incremental, i.e. when applied, what exists already is left intact, and partitions are never shrunk, moved or deleted.

These definition files are useful for implementing operating system images that are prepared and delivered with minimally sized images (for example lacking any state or swap partitions), and which on first boot automatically take possession of any remaining disk space following a few basic rules.

Currently, support for partition definition files is only implemented for GPT partitition tables.

Partition files are generally matched against any partitions already existing on disk in a simple algorithm: the partition files are sorted by their filename (ignoring the directory prefix), and then compared in order against existing partitions matching the same partition type UUID. Specifically, the first existing partition with a specific partition type UUID is assigned the first definition file with the same partition type UUID, and the second existing partition with a specific type UUID the second partition file with the same type UUID, and so on. Any left-over partition files that have no matching existing partition are assumed to define new partition that shall be created. Such partitions are appended to the end of the partition table, in the order defined by their names utilizing the first partition slot greater than the highest slot number currently in use. Any existing partitions that have no matching partition file are left as they are.

Note that these partition definition files do not describe the contents of the partitions, such as the file system used. Separate mechanisms, such as systemd-growfs(8) and systemd-makefs maybe be used to initialize or grow the file systems inside of these partitions.

[PARTITION] SECTION OPTIONS

Type=
    The GPT partition type UUID to match. This may be a GPT partition type UUID such as 4f68bce3-e8cd-4db1-96e7-fbcaf984b709, or one of the following special identifiers:

    Table 1. GPT partition type identifiers
    Identifier | Explanation
    esp | EFI System Partition
    xbootldr | Extended Boot Loader Partition
    swap | Swap partition
    home | Home (/home/) partition
    srv | Server data (/srv/) partition
    var | Variable data (/var/) partition
    tmp | Temporary data (/var/tmp/) partition
    linux-generic | Generic Linux file system partition
    root | Root file system partition type appropriate for the local architecture (an alias for an architecture root file system partition type listed below, e.g. root-x86-64)
    root-verity | Verity data for the root file system partition for the local architecture
    root-secondary | Root file system partition of the secondary architecture of the local architecture; usually the matching 32bit architecture for the local 64bit architecture)
    root-secondary-verity | Verity data for the root file system partition of the secondary architecture
    root-x86 | Root file system partition for the x86 (32bit, aka i386) architecture
    root-x86-verity | Verity data for the x86 (32bit) root file system partition
    root-x86-64 | Root file system partition for the x86_64 (64bit, aka amd64) architecture
    root-x86-64-verity | Verity data for the x86_64 (64bit) root file system partition
    root-arm | Root file system partition for the ARM (32bit) architecture
    root-arm-verity | Verity data for the ARM (32bit) root file system partition
    root-arm64 | Root file system partition for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) architecture
    root-arm64-verity | Verity data for the ARM (64bit, aka aarch64) root file system partition
    root-ia64 | Root file system partition for the ia64 architecture
    root-ia64-verity | Verity data for the ia64 root file system partition

    This setting defaults to linux-generic.

    Most of the partition type UUIDs listed above are defined in the Discoverable Partitions Specification[1].

Label=
    The textual label to assign to the partition if none is assigned yet. Note that this setting is not used for matching. It is also not used when a label is already set for an existing partition. It is thus only used when a partition is newly created or when an existing one had a no label set (that is: an empty label). If not specified a label derived from the partition type is automatically used.

Priority=
    A numeric priority to assign to this partition, in the range -2147483648...2147483647, with smaller values indicating higher priority, and higher values indicating smaller priority. This priority is used in case the configured size constraints on the defined partitions do not permit fitting all partitions onto the available disk space. If the partitions do not fit, the highest numeric partition priority of all defined partitions is determined, and all defined partitions with this priority are removed from the list of new partitions to create (which may be multiple, if the same priority is used for multiple partitions). The fitting algorithm is then tried again. If the partitions still do not fit, the now highest numeric partition priority is determined, and the matching partitions removed too, and so on. Partitions of a priority of 0 or lower are never removed. If all partitions with a priority above 0 are removed and the partitions still do not fit on the device the operation fails. Note that this priority has no effect on ordering partitions, for that use the alphabetical order of the filenames of the partition definition files. Defaults to 0.

Weight=
    A numeric weight to assign to this partition in the range 0...1000000. Available disk space is assigned the defined partitions according to their relative weights (subject to the size constraints configured with SizeMinBytes=, SizeMaxBytes=), so that a partition with weight 2000 gets double the space as one with weight 1000, and a partition with weight 333 a third of that. Defaults to 1000.

    The Weight= setting is used to distribute available disk space in an "elastic" fashion, based on the disk size and existing partitions. If a partition shall have a fixed size use both SizeMinBytes= and SizeMaxBytes= with the same value in order to fixate the size to one value, in which case the weight has no effect.

PaddingWeight=
    Similar to Weight= but sets a weight for the free space after the partition (the "padding"). When distributing available space the weights of all partitions and all defined padding is summed, and then each partition and padding gets the fraction defined by its weight. Defaults to 0, i.e. by default no padding is applied.

    Padding is useful if empty space shall be left for later additions or a safety margin at the end of the device or between partitions.

SizeMinBytes=, SizeMaxBytes=
    Specifies minimum and maximum size constraints in bytes. Takes the usual K, M, G, T, ... suffixes (to the base of 1024). If SizeMinBytes= is specified the partition is created at or grown to at least the specified size. If SizeMaxBytes= is specified the partition is created at or grown to at most the specified size. The precise size is determined through the weight value value configured with Weight=, see above. When SizeMinBytes= is set equal to SizeMaxBytes= the configured weight has no effect as the partition is explicitly sized to the specified fixed value. Note that partitions are never created smaller than 4096 bytes, and since partitions are never shrunk the previous size of the partition (in case the partition already exists) is also enforced as lower bound for the new size. The values should be specified as multiples of 4096 bytes, and are rounded upwards (in case of SizeMinBytes=) or downwards (in case of SizeMaxBytes=) otherwise. If the backing device does not provide enough space to fulfill the constraints placing the partition will fail. For partitions that shall be created, depending on the setting of Priority= (see above) the partition might be dropped and the placing algorithm restarted. By default a minimum size constraint of 10M and no maximum size constraint is set.

PaddingMinBytes=, PaddingMaxBytes=
    Specifies minimum and maximum size constrains in bytes for the free space after the partition (the "padding"). Semantics are similar to SizeMinBytes= and SizeMaxBytes=, except that unlike partition sizes free space can be shrunk and can be as small as zero. By default no size constraints on padding are set, so that only PaddingWeight= determines the size of the padding applied.

FactoryReset=
    Takes a boolean argument. If specified the partition is marked for removal during a factory reset operation. This functionality is useful to implement schemes where images can be reset into their original state by removing partitions and creating them anew. Defaults to off.

EXAMPLES

Example 1. Grow the root partition to the full disk size at first boot

With the following file the root partition is automatically grown to the full disk if possible during boot.

    # /usr/lib/repart.d/50-root.conf
    [Partition]
    Type=root

Example 2. Create a swap and home partition automatically on boot, if missing

The home partition gets all available disk space while the swap partition gets 1G at most and 64M at least. We set a priority > 0 on the swap partition to ensure the swap partition is not used if not enough space is available. For every three bytes assigned to the home partition the swap partition gets assigned one.

    # /usr/lib/repart.d/60-home.conf
    [Partition]
    Type=home

    # /usr/lib/repart.d/70-swap.conf
    [Partition]
    Type=swap
    SizeMinBytes=64M
    SizeMaxBytes=1G
    Priority=1
    Weight=333

Example 3. Create B partitions in an A/B Verity setup, if missing

Let's say the vendor intends to update OS images in an A/B setup, i.e. with two root partitions (and two matching Verity partitions) that shall be used alternatingly during upgrades. To minimize image sizes the original image is shipped only with one root and one Verity partition (the "A" set), and the second root and Verity partitions (the "B" set) shall be created on first boot on the free space on the medium.

    # /usr/lib/repart.d/50-root.conf
    [Partition]
    Type=root
    SizeMinBytes=512M
    SizeMaxBytes=512M

    # /usr/lib/repart.d/60-root-verity.conf
    [Partition]
    Type=root-verity
    SizeMinBytes=64M
    SizeMaxBytes=64M

The definitions above cover the "A" set of root partition (of a fixed 512M size) and Verity partition for the root partition (of a fixed 64M size). Let's use symlinks to create the "B" set of partitions, since after all they shall have the same properties and sizes as the "A" set.

    # ln -s 50-root.conf /usr/lib/repart.d/70-root-b.conf
    # ln -s 60-root-verity.conf /usr/lib/repart.d/80-root-verity-b.conf

SEE ALSO

systemd(1), systemd-repart(8), sfdisk(8)

NOTES

1.  Discoverable Partitions Specification
    https://systemd.io/DISCOVERABLE_PARTITIONS