Timeline for Why does parted need a filesystem type when creating a partition, and how does its action differ from a utility like mkfs.ext4?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 13, 2020 at 21:31 | history | edited | Hermann | CC BY-SA 4.0 | typo |
| Nov 14, 2019 at 19:19 | comment | added | JdeBP | For another approach, see jdebp.uk./FGA/determining-filesystem-type.html , which makes the same point. | |
| Nov 8, 2019 at 0:10 | comment | added | Garo | I tried to explain what the partitiontype is used for, what the filesystemtype is used for and what the difference is in my comment. But for the full info see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_type and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system | |
| Nov 8, 2019 at 0:08 | comment | added | davolfman | A good example of a partition type being different from a file system is the EFI System Partion which UEFI systems read bootloaders from instead of the MBR. While formatted with FAT 16 or FAT 32, the partition type is a special type for EFI on both MBR and GPT partition tables. | |
| Nov 7, 2019 at 23:49 | comment | added | Hermann | Yes, that is specifically the point. Back in the day, most file-systems were proprietary and not documented. Not knowing what to look for, you could not tell whether a partition was unused (and filled with random left-over data) or holding a file-system you did not happen to know. Also, partitions can hold data even without a file-system. Popular examples are the Linux swap space (memory extension) or a "BIOS boot partition" (can hold a boot-loader). | |
| Nov 7, 2019 at 23:38 | comment | added | David M | This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks. Can you expand on what the partition type is used for? Is it just something that lets other software/OSes know what type of partition to expect without having to check the partition specifically? | |
| Nov 7, 2019 at 23:34 | vote | accept | David M | ||
| Nov 7, 2019 at 23:31 | history | answered | Hermann | CC BY-SA 4.0 |