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partition

Block devices can be divided into one or more partitions. The layout of the parititions is recorded in the partition table which is usually found in sector 0 of the disk. (BSD users speak of disk slices and disk labels).

Determine the file system of a partition

file -sL /dev/sda4
lsblk -f (lsblk)
On Windows: diskpart list disk (diskpart.exe).

Directories required for booting

The directories /etc and /usr are required in the boot process. Therefore, they should be in the root partition, or mounted early.

Tools to manage partitions

fdisk, gdisk, parted, partx etc.

TODO

btrfs partitioning (seems to replace MBR and GPT partitioning).

CHS - Cylinder, Head, Sector

CHS (cylinder, head, sector) addressing has never been important for Linux.
Solid state drives don't have physical cylinders or heads anyway.

See also

/proc/partitions lists major and minor numbers of partitioned devices as well as their names in /dev.
Partition tables and file systems
Remove an old partition with wipefs.

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