Last Web page update: 7/4/2010, GPT fdisk version 0.6.9
GPT fdisk is available via its Sourceforge page. This is the preferred method of downloading the program. If that fails, though, you can try the following direct link to obtain the source code:
The Sourceforge page includes binary RPMs and Debian packages for x86, x86-64, and PowerPC, as well as binary packages for Mac OS X and Windows.
Some Linux emergency disk systems, including SystemRescueCd and PartedMagic, ship with GPT fdisk, so you can use the program from these emergency systems even if you run an OS on which GPT fdisk doesn't compile.
I have received word that GPT fdisk is being added to several major Linux distributions. As of July 2010, I know of several official releases in major distributions:
Major distribution developers are understandably cautious about including new software in their distributions. I have no bug reports from any Linux distribution developers regarding GPT fdisk; I believe the classification of the software as "unstable" only reflects the newness of the software, and perhaps my own classification of the software as being beta-quality. When building the Gentoo package on my system, the relatively new version of GCC I used spat out a large number of warnings, which relate to stricter testing of implicit casts and function return values in the latest versions of GCC. I've cleaned most of these up in 0.5.3.
If you're using a distribution for which they're available, I encourage you to use the packages from your distribution unless you need features in a more recent version. For users of other distributions, the Sourceforge RPMs and Debian packages should install on most major systems, and of course the source code is available!
If a binary RPM doesn't install on your system, you can download the source RPM (with a filename that ends in .src.rpm). You can then build a new binary RPM for your distribution with the rpmbuild command:
$ rpmbuild --rebuild gdisk-0.6.9-1.src.rpm
The result is a new binary package file, usually in /usr/src/rpm/RPMS/arch/, where arch is an architecture code for your system. Sometimes the file is placed a subdirectory of your home directory instead; look for the location on a line beginning with Wrote: about a dozen lines up from the end of the rpmbuild output.
GPT fdisk is currently beta-quality software! Although I know of no data-corruption bugs in the current version, I can't guarantee that the program won't damage your system. I welcome bug reports and reports of successful use of the program, particularly if you're using it on exotic systems. (As of version 0.6.2, Windows counts as "exotic," since the Windows build is new with this version.)
Go on to "Revisions"
Return to "GPT fdisk" main page
If you have problems with or comments about this web page, please e-mail me at rodsmith@rodsbooks.com. Thanks.
Return to my main web page.