What’s the easiest way to resize an ext4 partition (or any type partition depending on the method) from the command line (potentially with the fewest commands, but also the easiest to understand)?
Using a tool like Gparted is obviously easy in a GUI, but what about in the command line? I guess text-based GUIs can count for the answer too since it’s technically still in the command line. It just needs to be easy.
By partition I mean a simple partition on a single disk of a personal computer (e.g. on a laptop). For example, I want to resize /dev/sda4. There’s no RAIDs, there’s not more than one disk drive, there’s not anything complicated here. Just a simple partition on a single disk (/dev/sdaX on /dev/sda).
Answers:
Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Method 1
You can use fdisk to change your partition table while running.
Refer to Live resizing of an ext4 filesytem on Linux
(on The silence of the code blog):
Disclaimer: The following instructions
can easily screw your data if you make a mistake.
I was doing this on a VM which I backed up
before performing the following actions.
If you lose your data because you didn’t perform a backup
don’t come and complain.…
First: Increase the disk size.
In ESXi this is simple, just increase the size of the virtual disk. Now you have a bigger hard
drive but you still need to a) increase the partition size and b)
resize the filesystem.Second: Increase the partition size.
You can use
fdiskto change the partition table while running.
The stock Ubuntu install has
created 3 partitions: one primary (sda1), one extended (sda2) with a
single logical partition (sda5) in it. The extended partition is
simply used for swap, so I could easily move it without losing any
data.
- Delete the primary partition
- Delete the extended partition
- Create a new primary partition starting at the same sector as the original one just with a bigger size (leave some for swap)
- Create a new extended partition with a logical partition in it to hold the swap space
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a9c4cce9dccbdcc7dddc">[email protected]</a>:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 268.4 GB, 268435456000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32635 cylinders, total 524288000 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e49fa Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 2048 192940031 96468992 83 Linux /dev/sda2 192942078 209713151 8385537 5 Extended /dev/sda5 192942080 209713151 8385536 82 Linux swap / Solaris Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-5): 1 Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-5): 2 Command (m for help): n Partition type: p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free) e extended Select (default p): p Partition number (1-4, default 1): Using default value 1 First sector (2048-524287999, default 2048): Using default value 2048 Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-524287999, default 524287999): 507516925 Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 268.4 GB, 268435456000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32635 cylinders, total 524288000 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e49fa Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 2048 507516925 253757439 83 Linux Command (m for help): n Partition type: p primary (1 primary, 0 extended, 3 free) e extended Select (default p): e Partition number (1-4, default 2): 2 First sector (507516926-524287999, default 507516926): Using default value 507516926 Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (507516926-524287999, default 524287999): Using default value 524287999 Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 268.4 GB, 268435456000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32635 cylinders, total 524288000 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e49fa Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 2048 507516925 253757439 83 Linux /dev/sda2 507516926 524287999 8385537 5 Extended Command (m for help): n Partition type: p primary (1 primary, 1 extended, 2 free) l logical (numbered from 5) Select (default p): l Adding logical partition 5 First sector (507518974-524287999, default 507518974): Using default value 507518974 Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (507518974-524287999, default 524287999): Using default value 524287999 Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 268.4 GB, 268435456000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32635 cylinders, total 524288000 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e49fa Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 2048 507516925 253757439 83 Linux /dev/sda2 507516926 524287999 8385537 5 Extended /dev/sda5 507518974 524287999 8384513 83 Linux Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-5): 5 Hex code (type L to list codes): 82 Changed system type of partition 5 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 268.4 GB, 268435456000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32635 cylinders, total 524288000 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e49fa Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 2048 507516925 253757439 83 Linux /dev/sda2 507516926 524287999 8385537 5 Extended /dev/sda5 507518974 524287999 8384513 82 Linux swap / Solaris Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy. The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) Syncing disks. <a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="b3ded6f3c6d1c6ddc7c6">[email protected]</a>:~$ sudo rebootI noticed afterwards that I didn’t set the bootable flag
but apparently you don’t really need it.Third: Enlargen the filesystem.
You can do this with
resize2fsonline on a mounted partition.<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="432e26033621362d3736">[email protected]</a>:~$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 91G 86G 12M 100% / udev 3.9G 4.0K 3.9G 1% /dev tmpfs 1.6G 696K 1.6G 1% /run none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock none 3.9G 144K 3.9G 1% /run/shm none 100M 16K 100M 1% /run/user <a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="93fef6d3e6f1e6fde7e6">[email protected]</a>:~$ sudo resize2fs /dev/sda1 resize2fs 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012) Filesystem at /dev/sda1 is mounted on /; on-line resizing required old_desc_blocks = 6, new_desc_blocks = 16 The filesystem on /dev/sda1 is now 63439359 blocks long. <a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="3f525a7f4a5d4a514b4a">[email protected]</a>:~$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 239G 86G 142G 38% / udev 3.9G 12K 3.9G 1% /dev tmpfs 1.6G 696K 1.6G 1% /run none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock none 3.9G 152K 3.9G 1% /run/shm none 100M 36K 100M 1% /run/userSlight catch: After rebooting the swap space wasn’t
active. Turned out you need to runmkswap, adjust/etc/fstabto the
new UUID and turn the swap on<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="e8858da89d8a9d869c9d">[email protected]</a>:~$ sudo mkswap /dev/sda5 Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 8384508 KiB no label, UUID=141d401a-b49d-4a96-9b85-c130cb0de40a <a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5a373f1a2f382f342e2f">[email protected]</a>:~$ sudo swapon --all --verbose swapon on /dev/sda5 swapon: /dev/sda5: found swap signature: version 1, page-size 4, same byte order swapon: /dev/sda5: pagesize=4096, swapsize=8585740288, devsize=8585741312Edit
/etc/fstabto replace the UUID for the old swap partition
with the new one frommkswap.
Method 2
If you’re going to be increasing the size of both the partition and the filesystem, then first run fdisk to increase the size of the partition, and then run resize2fs to increase the size of the filesystem.
If you’re going to be shrinking the size of both, run resize2fs first and then run fdisk.
Method 3
I’m answering this in case you have a similar situation as mine. I had to resize the FileSystem (Ext4) on a dynamic disk running Ubuntu 18.0.4 LTS as Guest. I managed to resize the disk from the Host and then resize the FileSystem.
Running the usual commands wasn’t possible. For example:
$ resize2fs /dev/sda2 resize2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018) The filesystem is already 13180160 (4k) blocks long. Nothing to do!
and fdisk was quite complicated, also probably I had to run a LiveCD in order to work on the unmounted disk.
These two commands solved my problem easily and fast:
$ growpart /dev/sda 2 CHANGED: partition=2 start=4096 old: size=105441280 end=105445376 new: size=409595871,end=409599967 $ resize2fs /dev/sda2 resize2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018) Filesystem at /dev/sda2 is mounted on /; on-line resizing required old_desc_blocks = 7, new_desc_blocks = 25 The filesystem on /dev/sda2 is now 51199483 (4k) blocks long.
Note: 2 in the first command indicates the partition number on the device /dev/sda.
Method 4
gparted uses resize2fs to change the partition’s size. It doesn’t take many arguments. Below are the ones I’ve found useful.
-M shrinks to the file system’s minimum size.
-p shows a percentage indicator.
-P prints the file system’s minimum size and exits.
Method 5
A scriptable method, assuming that there is free space directly after the partition to be resized:
echo "- +" | sfdisk -N <partnum> /dev/sdX
…followed by resize2fs /dev/sdX<partnum>.
The - tells sfdisk to reuse the existing start sector, and the + tells it to make the size as large as possible given the available space.
Method 6
Resize a Linux Root Partition Without Rebooting
Introduction
A typical Linux server deployed from a ProfitBricks supplied image has a single storage volume, /dev/vda. If we take a look at that using fdisk we will see that the disk is divided into two partitions. The first one, /dev/vda1, is the boot partition where the OS resides. The second partition, /dev/vda2, is configured as swap space.
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1d6f7272695d79787f747c73">[email protected]</a>:~# fdisk -l /dev/vda Disk /dev/vda: 50 GiB, 53687091200 bytes, 104857600 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: dos Disk identifier: 0x0041f8a8 Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type /dev/vda1 2048 96471039 96468992 46G 83 Linux /dev/vda2 96471040 104857599 8386560 4G 82 Linux swap / Solaris </p>
In the example above, the total 50 GB storage volume is split into 46 GB usable space and 4 GB for swap. What if after provisioning we find that 46 GB of disk space is not enough but we prefer not to add an additional storage volume? The goal is to increase the amount of disk space available on the root filesystem. This can be accomplished with minimal disruption. We do not need to reboot the server!
Requirements
- A Linux Server created from a ProfitBricks supplied image.
- SSH or console access (via the DCD) to the Linux Server.
- The
partprobecommand. Can be installed from thepartedpackage on most Linux distributions. - The
fdisk,swapoff,mkswap,swapon, andresize2fscommands. Likely available by default. - A current snapshot or other backup of the system you are working on. Just to be safe!
Provision Additional Space
To increase the size of the hard drive, go into the DCD (Data Center Designer) and upscale the drive.
After you have increased the amount of drive space, click on “provisioning” to process the change. Takes around a minute and your hard drive is bigger.
We then need to switch off the swap – so make sure you can live a few minutes without swap space:
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a5d7cacad1e5c1c0c7ccc4cb">[email protected]</a>:~# swapoff -a
Once swap has been disabled, we need to reconfigure the partitions using fdisk:
We will delete the two existing partitions first. We run fdisk /dev/vda and then use the d command to delete partition 2, and then delete partition 1. Follow the example below:
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="acdec3c3d8ecc8c9cec5cdc2">[email protected]</a>:~# fdisk /dev/vda Command (m for help): d Partition number (1,2, default 2): Partition 2 has been deleted. Command (m for help): d Selected partition 1 Partition 1 has been deleted. </p>
Now we recreate our partitions. In the example we have 4 GB of swap space. So we need to keep at least that much space available for the new swap partition.
Recreate /dev/vda1 first. Press n to create a new partition. Enter p to create a primary partition. We can press Enter to accept the default value of 2048 for the first sector. Then enter a size for the partition. You can enter a value in GB, so if we are increasing the disk to 100 GB, we subtract our 4 GB for swap, and enter +96G for 96 GB.
Command (m for help): n
Partition type
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-209715199, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-209715199, default 209715199): +96G
Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 96 GiB.
</p>
Now we recreate the swap partition following a simalar process. Press n and then p to create a new primary partition. Press Enter to accept the default value for “First sector”. We can also press Enter again to accept the default value for “Last sector”.
Command (m for help): n
Partition type
p primary (1 primary, 0 extended, 3 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (2-4, default 2): 2
First sector (201328640-209715199, default 201328640):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (201328640-209715199, default 209715199):
Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux' and of size 4 GiB.
</p>
Since this second partition is going to be used for swap space, we need to change the partition type. This can be done by pressing t at the fdisk prompt. We then press 2 to select the second partition. If you want to see the list of available partition types, press L, otherwise enter 82 to select “Linux swap / Solaris”.
Command (m for help): t Partition number (1,2, default 2): 2 Partition type (type L to list all types): L 0 Empty 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris 1 FAT12 27 Hidden NTFS Win 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT- 2 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 83 Linux c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT- 3 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 84 OS/2 hidden or c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT- 4 FAT16 <32M 40 Venix 80286 85 Linux extended c7 Syrinx 5 Extended 41 PPC PReP Boot 86 NTFS volume set da Non-FS data 6 FAT16 42 SFS 87 NTFS volume set db CP/M / CTOS / . 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT 4d QNX4.x 88 Linux plaintext de Dell Utility 8 AIX 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 8e Linux LVM df BootIt 9 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 93 Amoeba e1 DOS access a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 94 Amoeba BBT e3 DOS R/O b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 9f BSD/OS e4 SpeedStor c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52 CP/M a0 IBM Thinkpad hi ea Rufus alignment e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a5 FreeBSD eb BeOS fs f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54 OnTrackDM6 a6 OpenBSD ee GPT 10 OPUS 55 EZ-Drive a7 NeXTSTEP ef EFI (FAT-12/16/ 11 Hidden FAT12 56 Golden Bow a8 Darwin UFS f0 Linux/PA-RISC b 12 Compaq diagnost 5c Priam Edisk a9 NetBSD f1 SpeedStor 14 Hidden FAT16 <3 61 SpeedStor ab Darwin boot f4 SpeedStor 16 Hidden FAT16 63 GNU HURD or Sys af HFS / HFS+ f2 DOS secondary 17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fb VMware VMFS 18 AST SmartSleep 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap fc VMware VMKCORE 1b Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid fd Linux raid auto 1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX bc Acronis FAT32 L fe LANstep 1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix be Solaris boot ff BBT Partition type (type L to list all types): 82 </p>
fdisk helpfully informs us that we have changed the partition type with the message:
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux swap / Solaris'.
After that, we save using the w command and are returned to a shell prompt:
Command (m for help): w
You may get a message like this before the shell prompt:
The partition table has been altered. Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Re-reading the partition table failed.: Device or resource busy The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8). </p>
Lets forgo rebooting and instead tell the kernel about the new partitions using partprobe:
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a8dac7c7dce8cccdcac1c9c6">[email protected]</a>:~# partprobe
We should be returned to the shell prompt with no output from partprobe.
Now we need to resize our filesystem on /dev/vda1:
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="ed9f828299ad89888f848c83">[email protected]</a>:~# resize2fs /dev/vda1 resize2fs 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014) Filesystem at /dev/vda1 is mounted on /; on-line resizing required old_desc_blocks = 2, new_desc_blocks = 3
The filesystem on /dev/vda1 is now 25165824 (4k) blocks long.
Initialize the new swap location of /dev/vda2:
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5b2934342f1b3f3e39323a35">[email protected]</a>:~# mkswap /dev/vda2 Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 4193276 KiB no label, UUID=c55c25a2-a386-4653-8455-4d9030586dd2
Finally we edit /etc/fstab and replace the old UUID with the new one returned in the output of the mkswap command. The line to change has no value for “mount point” and has “type” set to swap.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a # device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices # that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5). # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> UUID=332f8fb5-ff1f-4297-b512-f2c93a277296 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0 UUID=c55c25a2-a386-4653-8455-4d9030586dd2 none swap sw 0 0
After editing /etc/fstab, we need to enable swap again:
<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="fa8895958eba9e9f98939b94">[email protected]</a>:~# swapon -a
Verify
We can verify the new larger disk size by utilizing df and/or fdisk.
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type /dev/vda1 2048 201328639 201326592 96G 83 Linux /dev/vda2 201328640 209715199 8386560 4G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
We can also confirm that the server was not rebooted by looking at the output of uptime:
$ uptime 23:54:21 up 7 days, 1:15, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
Summary
We have successfully increased the amount of disk space available on our Linux server.
Reference
https://devops.ionos.com/tutorials/increase-the-size-of-a-linux-root-partition-without-rebooting/
OR
Method 7
The solution of noalo is obviously the best of all;
so much simpler than the others:
echo "- +" | sfdisk -N <partnum> /dev/sdX
Short explanation on how it works: -N means sfdisk will work on a single partition. When started like that, sfdisk will be interactive and wait for a start position, a size, and optionally a partition type. “-” means the start position is not changed, “+” means the end position will use as much space as possible. After that you would have to use the print and write commands. The leading echo "- +" | does that in one line.
Its limitation is that there must be free space directly after. If, after the partition to resize, there is a swap partition (which means no real data inside), it can be solved as easily by sfdisk. Using the above syntax, suppose the partition to change is on sda1 and swap on sda2, we have a 128 G disk, and we want 6 G of swap:
The first step is to move the swap partition to the end:
echo "122G +" | sfdisk -N2 /dev/sda
Now expand the first partition:
echo "- +" | sfdisk -N1 /dev/sda
and resize it with resize2fs. You may have to ensure your new swap is recognized.
See swapoff, mkswap, swapon and the fstab file.
This is not within the scope of this question.
About the command for sda2:
DO NOT move a partition with data this way!!!
You would lose all your data.
This command does not move the data; just the partition boundaries.
There is no danger with the command used for sda1 (- +)
because the start position of the partition is not changed;
this is the meaning of “-“, when used for a single partition.
Thank you @noalo
All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0