[SOLVED] - Manual Partitioning - Label

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warron.french
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[SOLVED] - Manual Partitioning - Label

Post by warron.french » 2021/06/10 12:49:25

In the phase of Manual Partitioning in the UI where a person is building the storage configuration, what does the "Label:" field actually do?

More specifically, why use it if it is not required at all?

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Last edited by warron.french on 2021/06/10 16:58:32, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks,
War

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TrevorH
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Re: Manual Partitioning - Label

Post by TrevorH » 2021/06/10 13:15:05

It allows you to add a label to the filesystem which can then be used in /etc/fstab to mount it via LABEL=
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

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warron.french
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Re: Manual Partitioning - Label

Post by warron.french » 2021/06/10 16:58:18

Interesting. I have never used that.
Thanks,
War

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jlehtone
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Re: [SOLVED] - Manual Partitioning - Label

Post by jlehtone » 2021/06/10 18:00:42

The enumeration of devices is not deterministic. Some filesystem types can contain metadata "label". Persistent identifier (and hopefully unique). That lets you always mount that filesystem correctly regardless of the enumeration.

Filesystems do have UUID too, for same purpose. UUID is usually autogenerated, while LABEL is more "human" name. IIRC, the (support for) LABEL did appear a bit earlier than the UUID. See:

Code: Select all

man blkid
man fstab
man e2label
If you clone whole disks/partitions (or mirror breaks), then you have two separate entities with identical LABEL and UUID. That is not fun.

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warron.french
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Re: [SOLVED] - Manual Partitioning - Label

Post by warron.french » 2021/06/10 21:08:06

Thanks @jlehtone.
Thanks,
War

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