[Bug 1270203] [NEW] no way to use resizepart non-interactively on busy partition

[Scott Moser]

Public bug reported:

I can't see a way to really use resizepart usefully on a mounted
partition (which is kind of the point of the functionality).

There are a few issues:
a.) it seems that the size provided is in MB when realistically I'd like to provide the number in sectors or blocks, something more fine-grained than that.
b.) no way to say 'grow as big as you can'
c.) no way to use 'force' or use non-interactively outside of undocumented flag.

Example:
$ echo "1,1000,L" | sudo sfdisk /dev/vdb
$ grep "vdb" /proc/partitions
 253 16 20971520 vdb
 253 17 504000 vdb1
$ sudo mkfs /dev/vdb1
$ sudo mount /dev/vdb1 /mnt

## now /dev/vdb is busy (mounted) try to resizepart on it.

$ sudo parted /dev/vdb resizepart 1 </dev/null
Warning: Partition /dev/vdb1 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?
$ echo $?
1

# so that didn't resize (reading from /dev/null). Not surprising.
# try with 'Yes' to stdin.
echo "Yes" | sudo parted /dev/vdb resizepart 1; echo $?
Warning: Partition /dev/vdb1 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?
1


I've also tried the undocumented '---pretend-input-tty' without success.
It seems it can be used for some operations, but not for others.
For example, this worked on an unmounted partition:
 echo "Yes" | sudo parted ---pretend-input-tty /dev/vdb resizepart 1 500

But this doesn't seem to work on a mounted partition which is really my goal:
echo "Yes" | sudo parted ---pretend-input-tty /dev/vdb resizepart 1 1000
Warning: Partition /dev/vdb1 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?
parted: invalid token: 1000
Yes/No? Yes
End?  [500MB]?


Related bugs:
 * bug 1212492: cloud-init  cc_growpart broken if parted resizefs found

** Affects: parted (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Low
         Status: Confirmed

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1270203

Title:
  no way to use resizepart non-interactively on busy partition

Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I can't see a way to really use resizepart usefully on a mounted
  partition (which is kind of the point of the functionality).

  There are a few issues:
  a.) it seems that the size provided is in MB when realistically I'd like to provide the number in sectors or blocks, something more fine-grained than that.
  b.) no way to say 'grow as big as you can'
  c.) no way to use 'force' or use non-interactively outside of undocumented flag.

  Example:
  $ echo "1,1000,L" | sudo sfdisk /dev/vdb
  $ grep "vdb" /proc/partitions
   253 16 20971520 vdb
   253 17 504000 vdb1
  $ sudo mkfs /dev/vdb1
  $ sudo mount /dev/vdb1 /mnt

  ## now /dev/vdb is busy (mounted) try to resizepart on it.

  $ sudo parted /dev/vdb resizepart 1 </dev/null
  Warning: Partition /dev/vdb1 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?
  $ echo $?
  1

  # so that didn't resize (reading from /dev/null). Not surprising.
  # try with 'Yes' to stdin.
  echo "Yes" | sudo parted /dev/vdb resizepart 1; echo $?
  Warning: Partition /dev/vdb1 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?
  1

  
  I've also tried the undocumented '---pretend-input-tty' without success.
  It seems it can be used for some operations, but not for others.
  For example, this worked on an unmounted partition:
   echo "Yes" | sudo parted ---pretend-input-tty /dev/vdb resizepart 1 500

  But this doesn't seem to work on a mounted partition which is really my goal:
  echo "Yes" | sudo parted ---pretend-input-tty /dev/vdb resizepart 1 1000
  Warning: Partition /dev/vdb1 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?
  parted: invalid token: 1000
  Yes/No? Yes
  End?  [500MB]?

  
  Related bugs:
   * bug 1212492: cloud-init  cc_growpart broken if parted resizefs found

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