gparted/README

GPARTED
=======
Gparted is the GNOME Partition Editor for creating, reorganizing, and
deleting disk partitions.

A hard disk is usually subdivided into one or more partitions.  These
partitions are normally not re-sizable (making one smaller and the
adjacent one larger.)  Gparted makes it possible for you to take a
hard disk and change the partition organization, while preserving the
partition contents.

More specifically, Gparted enables you to create, destroy, resize,
move, check, label, and copy partitions, and the file systems
contained within.  This is useful for creating space for new operating
systems, reorganizing disk usage, and mirroring one partition with
another (disk imaging).

Gparted can also be used with storage devices other than hard disks,
such as USB flash drives, and memory cards.

Visit http://gparted.org for more information.


LICENSING
---------
GParted is released under the General Public License version 2, or (at
your option) any later version.  (GPLv2+).  All files are released under
the GPLv2+ unless explicitly licensed otherwise.

The GParted Manual is released under the GNU Free Documentation License
version 1.2 or any later version.  (GFDLv1.2+).

See these files for more details:
   COPYING      - GNU General Public License version 2
   COPYING-DOCS - GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2


NEWS
----
Information about changes to this release, and past releases can be
found in the file:
   NEWS


INSTALL
-------
a. Pre-built Binary

   Many GNU/Linux distributions already provide a pre-built binary
   package for GParted.  Instructions on how to install GParted on
   some distributions is given below:

      Debian or Ubuntu
      ----------------
      sudo apt-get install gparted

      Fedora or CentOS/RHEL
      ---------------------
      su -
      yum install gparted

      OpenSUSE
      --------
      sudo zypper install gparted

b. Building from Source

   Briefly, build and install GParted into the default location of
   /usr/local using:
      ./configure
      make
      sudo make install
   This assumes all the dependencies are already installed and builds
   the default configuration.

   The following dependencies are required to build GParted from source:
      g++
      e2fsprogs
      parted
      gnome-common
      gtkmm24
      gettext
      gnome-doc-utils     - required if help documentation is to be built

   On Debian or Ubuntu, these dependencies may be obtained by running
   one of the following commands:
     Either;
      sudo apt-get build-dep gparted
     Or;
      sudo apt-get install build-essential e2fsprogs uuid uuid-dev \
                           gnome-common libparted-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev \
                           libdevmapper-dev gnome-doc-utils docbook-xml

   On Fedora, you will need to run (as root);
      yum install gtkmm24-devel parted-devel e2fsprogs-devel gettext \
                  'perl(XML::Parser)' desktop-file-utils libuuid-devel \
                  gnome-doc-utils docbook-dtds rarian-compat intltool \
                  gnome-common gcc-c++
      yum groupinstall 'Development Tools'

   On openSUSE, these dependencies may be obtained by running the
   following commands;
      sudo zypper install automake autoconf make gnome-common \
                          libuuid-devel parted-devel gtkmm2-devel \
                          gnome-doc-utils-devel docbook-xsl-stylesheets
      sudo zypper install -t pattern devel_c_c++

   Again, build GParted with the default configuration and install into
   the default location of /usr/local using:
      ./configure
      make
      sudo make install

   If you wish to build this package without the help documentation use
   the --disable-doc flag:
      E.g., ./configure --disable-doc

   If you wish to build this package for use on a desktop that does not
   support scrollkeeper use the --disable-scrollkeeper flag:
      E.g., ./configure --disable-scrollkeeper

   If you wish to build this package to use native libparted /dev/mapper
   dmraid support use the --enable-libparted-dmraid flag:
      E.g., ./configure --enable-libparted-dmraid

   If you wish to build this package with online resize support then
   the following is required:
      a)  Linux kernel version 3.6 or higher.
      b)  Libparted with online resize support.  Either:
          i)  Libparted version 3.2 or later which includes online
              resize support as standard.  In this case GParted is
              automatically built with online resize support.
          ii) Online resize support back ported into an earlier version
              of libparted.  This is only known to be included in Debian
              and derived distributions with parted version 2.3-14 and
              higher.  In this case online resize support must be
              specifically enabled with the --enable-online-resize flag:
                E.g., ./configure --enable-online-resize

   Please note that more than one configure flag can be used:
      E.g., ./configure --disable-doc --enable-libparted-dmraid

   The INSTALL file contains further GNU installation instructions.

c. Building using a Specific (lib)parted Version

   1) Download the parted version you wish to use (e.g., 3.2) from:

      http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/

   2) Build and install parted.

      Extract parted tarball, configure, make, and sudo make install.
      Note that by default this will install into /usr/local.

   3) Set environment variables to inform the GParted build system to
      use libparted from /usr/local:

        export CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include
        export LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib
        export LD_RUN_PATH=/usr/local/lib
        export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

   4) Build gparted using steps listed above in "Building from Source".

      Note that when you run ./configure you should see the specific
      version of parted listed in the check for libparted >= 1.7.1.

      You will also see the libparted version listed when running
      gparted from the command line.


DIRECTORIES
------------
compose  - contains String::ucompose() function

data     - contains desktop icons

doc      - contains manual page documentation

help     - contains GParted Manual and international translations

include  - contains source header files

m4       - contains macro files

po       - contains international language translations

src      - contains C++ source code


DISTRIBUTION NOTES
------------------
GParted uses GNU libparted to detect and manipulate devices and
partition tables.  The blkid command is also required to detect those
file systems which libparted doesn't detect.  (The blkid command should
be considered a mandatory requirement).

GParted also queries and manipulates the file systems within those
devices and partitions.  When available, it uses each file system's
specific commands.  The following optional file system specific packages
provide this support:

   btrfs-progs / btrfs-tools
   e2fsprogs
   f2fs-tools
   dosfstools
   mtools          - required to read and write FAT16/32 volume labels
                     and UUIDs
   hfsutils
   hfsprogs
   jfsutils
   nilfs-utils
   ntfs-3g / ntfsprogs
   reiser4progs
   reiserfsprogs / reiserfs-utils / reiserfs
   xfsprogs, xfsdump


For dmraid support, the following packages are required:

   dmsetup         - removes /dev/mapper entries
   dmraid          - lists dmraid devices and creates /dev/mapper
                     entries

For GNU/Linux distribution dmraid support, the following are required:
   - kernel built with Device Mapping and Mirroring built.  From
     menuconfig, it is under Device Drivers -> <something> (RAID & LVM).
   - dmraid drive arrays activated on boot (e.g., dmraid -ay).


For LVM2 Physical Volume support the following command is required:
   lvm             - LVM2 administration tool
And device-mapper support in the kernel.


For accurate detection and reporting of Linux Software RAID Arrays the
following command is required:

   mdadm           - SWRaid administration tool


For LUKS read-only support the following command is required:
   dmsetup         - Device-mapper administration tool


For attempt data rescue for lost partitions, the following package
is required:
   gpart           - guesses PC-type hard disk partitions


Several more commands are optionally used by GParted if found on the
system.  These commands include:

   blkid           - [mandatory requirement] used to detect file systems
                     libparted doesn't, read UUIDs and volume labels
   hdparm          - used to query disk device serial numbers
   udisks          - used to prevent automounting of file systems
   devkit-disks    - used to prevent automounting of file systems
   {filemanager}   - used in attempt data rescue to display discovered
                     file systems.  (e.g., nautilus, pcmanfm)
   hal-lock        - used to prevent automounting of file systems
   gksudo          - used to acquire root privileges in .desktop file,
                     but only if available when gparted source is
                     configured.
   gksu            - alternatively used to acquire root privileges in
                     .desktop file if gksu not available, but only if
                     available when gparted source is configured.
   kdesudo         - alternatively used to acquire root privileges in
                     .desktop file if gksudo and gksu not available, but
                     only if available when gparted source is
                     configured.
   xdg-su          - alternatively used to acquire root privileges in
                     .desktop file if gksudo, gksu, and kdesudo are not
                     available, but only if available when gparted
                     source is configured.
   udevinfo        - used in dmraid to query udev name
   udevadm         - used in dmraid to query udev name
   yelp            - used to display help manual