Re: Getting the number of 512-byte sectors?

Re: Getting the number of 512-byte sectors?

[Andries.Brouwer]

    From: Anton Altaparmakov <aia21@cam.ac.uk>
    Subject: Getting the number of 512-byte sectors?

    My question is how to get the _real_ number of sectors of a partition from 
    within a file system. I.e. we are starting only with the knowledge of the 
    struct super_block for the partition.

As you conjectured already, you find this info in the gendisk->part[] array,
in the start_sect and nr_sects fields.

    Locate the correct gendisk structure by performing a walk of gendisk_head 
    as done in drivers/block/blkpg.c::get_gendisk(kdev_t), (Could we make this 
    function to not be private to blkpg.c?), then get the hd_struct for the 
    partition and obtain the values from that. In code:

    struct gendisk *g = get_gendisk(my_super_block->s_dev)
    struct hd_struct *hd = &g->part[MINOR(my_super_block->s_dev)];

    wanted "subtracted" values:
             hd->start_sect
             hd->nr_sects

    Am I missing something?

No, I agree completely.

    Note: I know I can normally get the number of sectors from the boot sector 
    of the partition

Not necessarily. The partition table need not be of DOS type.
Or, even if it is, the kernel's tables may be set up dynamically.

> Could we make this function to not be private to blkpg.c?

I think this area will change rather drastically in 2.5.*.

Andries
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Re: Getting the number of 512-byte sectors?

[Anton Altaparmakov]

>Andries, LKML,
>
>Referring to an old email I was just rereading:
>
>At 01:29 02/10/2000, Andries Brouwer wrote:
>On Mon, Oct 02, 2000 at 02:33:20AM +0200, Daniel Phillips wrote:
>[snip]
>> >unsigned long maxsector = (blk_size[major][MINOR(bh->b_rdev)] << 1) + 1;
>>blk_size[][] gives a block count
>>blk_size[][]<<1 gives a sector count
>>
>>but if the device had an odd number of sectors, the sector count
>>is one larger than twice the block count.
>>
>>(thus, this is not the precisely correct test; the knowledge about
>>the number of sectors lives in the dev->sizes array; here we only
>>have a rough check)
>
>But according to drivers/block/blkpg.c, (direct quote): "hd_struct has the 
>number of 512-byte sectors, g->sizes[] and blk_size[][] have the number of 
>1024-byte blocks". Assuming the "dev" you refer to == the "g" blkpg.c 
>refers to, the dev->sizes array is also not what is needed for the correct 
>test? Looking at blkpg.c, g->sizes is initialized to plength >> 
>(BLOCK_SIZE_BITS - 9) so it is 1024 byte blocks, indeed.
>
>My question is how to get the _real_ number of sectors of a partition from 
>within a file system. I.e. we are starting only with the knowledge of the 
>struct super_block for the partition.
>
>Also, I need to know the starting offset of the data inside the partition. 
>- I am probably explaining this wrong but what I mean is that I want the 
>values "First Sector", "Last Sector" and "Offset" as shown by running
>         cfdisk /dev/hda
>and selecting "Print", "Sectors".
>
>Alternatively, it would suffice to obtain the subtracted values, ie. the 
>data starting sector = "First Sector + Offset" and the number of sectors = 
>"Last Sector" - ("First Sector" + "Offset"). I.e. what is shown by:

I meant number of sectors = "Last Sector" - ("First Sector" + "Offset") + 1 
of course.

Anton

>         fdisk /dev/hda
>and selecting: u (to change to units = sectors), followed by p (to display 
>the partition table) and then the values of interest are "Start" and 
>"End", from which the number of sectors can be calculated from.
>
>Are these "subtracted" values what is present in the "struct hd_struct 
>*part" that can be found inside "struct gendisk"?
>
>Assuming that hd_struct does contain the subtracted values as described 
>above, is the following procedure A) correct? and B) the best way to 
>obtain them?
>
>Locate the correct gendisk structure by performing a walk of gendisk_head 
>as done in drivers/block/blkpg.c::get_gendisk(kdev_t), (Could we make this 
>function to not be private to blkpg.c?), then get the hd_struct for the 
>partition and obtain the values from that. In code:
>
>struct gendisk *g = get_gendisk(my_super_block->s_dev)
>struct hd_struct *hd = &g->part[MINOR(my_super_block->s_dev)];
>
>wanted "subtracted" values:
>         hd->start_sect
>         hd->nr_sects
>
>Am I missing something? Is the meaning of the values in hd_struct 
>different from what I think it is?
>
>Note: I know I can normally get the number of sectors from the boot sector 
>of the partition but in this case please assume that there is no boot 
>sector present or that it is corrupt or that the values in it cannot be 
>relied on due to weird things done by the 'other OS'.
>
>Thanks a lot for your help in advance.
>
>Best regards,
>
>         Anton
>
>--
>    "Programmers never die. They do a GOSUB without RETURN." - Unknown source
>--
>Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cam.ac.uk> (replace at with @)
>Linux NTFS Maintainer
>ICQ: 8561279 / WWW: http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/

-- 
      "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he 
learned in school." - Albert Einstein
-- 
Anton Altaparmakov  Voice: +44-(0)1223-333541(lab) / +44-(0)7712-632205(mobile)
Christ's College    eMail: AntonA@bigfoot.com / aia21@cam.ac.uk
Cambridge CB2 3BU    ICQ: 8561279
United Kingdom       WWW: http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/

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Getting the number of 512-byte sectors?

[Anton Altaparmakov]

Andries, LKML,

Referring to an old email I was just rereading:

At 01:29 02/10/2000, Andries Brouwer wrote:
On Mon, Oct 02, 2000 at 02:33:20AM +0200, Daniel Phillips wrote:
[snip]
> >unsigned long maxsector = (blk_size[major][MINOR(bh->b_rdev)] << 1) + 1;
>blk_size[][] gives a block count
>blk_size[][]<<1 gives a sector count
>
>but if the device had an odd number of sectors, the sector count
>is one larger than twice the block count.
>
>(thus, this is not the precisely correct test; the knowledge about
>the number of sectors lives in the dev->sizes array; here we only
>have a rough check)

But according to drivers/block/blkpg.c, (direct quote): "hd_struct has the 
number of 512-byte sectors, g->sizes[] and blk_size[][] have the number of 
1024-byte blocks". Assuming the "dev" you refer to == the "g" blkpg.c 
refers to, the dev->sizes array is also not what is needed for the correct 
test? Looking at blkpg.c, g->sizes is initialized to plength >> 
(BLOCK_SIZE_BITS - 9) so it is 1024 byte blocks, indeed.

My question is how to get the _real_ number of sectors of a partition from 
within a file system. I.e. we are starting only with the knowledge of the 
struct super_block for the partition.

Also, I need to know the starting offset of the data inside the partition. 
- I am probably explaining this wrong but what I mean is that I want the 
values "First Sector", "Last Sector" and "Offset" as shown by running
         cfdisk /dev/hda
and selecting "Print", "Sectors".

Alternatively, it would suffice to obtain the subtracted values, ie. the 
data starting sector = "First Sector + Offset" and the number of sectors = 
"Last Sector" - ("First Sector" + "Offset"). I.e. what is shown by:
         fdisk /dev/hda
and selecting: u (to change to units = sectors), followed by p (to display 
the partition table) and then the values of interest are "Start" and "End", 
from which the number of sectors can be calculated from.

Are these "subtracted" values what is present in the "struct hd_struct 
*part" that can be found inside "struct gendisk"?

Assuming that hd_struct does contain the subtracted values as described 
above, is the following procedure A) correct? and B) the best way to obtain 
them?

Locate the correct gendisk structure by performing a walk of gendisk_head 
as done in drivers/block/blkpg.c::get_gendisk(kdev_t), (Could we make this 
function to not be private to blkpg.c?), then get the hd_struct for the 
partition and obtain the values from that. In code:

struct gendisk *g = get_gendisk(my_super_block->s_dev)
struct hd_struct *hd = &g->part[MINOR(my_super_block->s_dev)];

wanted "subtracted" values:
         hd->start_sect
         hd->nr_sects

Am I missing something? Is the meaning of the values in hd_struct different 
from what I think it is?

Note: I know I can normally get the number of sectors from the boot sector 
of the partition but in this case please assume that there is no boot 
sector present or that it is corrupt or that the values in it cannot be 
relied on due to weird things done by the 'other OS'.

Thanks a lot for your help in advance.

Best regards,

         Anton


-- 
    "Programmers never die. They do a GOSUB without RETURN." - Unknown source
-- 
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cam.ac.uk> (replace at with @)
Linux NTFS Maintainer
ICQ: 8561279 / WWW: http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/

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