The partprobe command is normally needed only in situations where the partition table has changed and the system needs to be informed of the changes. The most common example is when you use the fdisk command to change a partition on a device that currently has mounted filesystems. The fdisk command attempts to inform the system of changes to the partition table by using a kernel call, which fails because of the “live” filesystem. To overcome this, just execute the partprobe command after exiting the fdisk utility.
These days, systems are pretty good about automatically re-reading the partition table changes of a device, though occasionally you might still need to run partprobe to inform your kernel of any changes manually.
Syntax:
# partprobe [OPTIONS] [DEVICE]
Options:
- -d: Does not actually inform the operating system.
- -s: Prints a summary of contents.
If you encounter the below error while running the partprobe command:
partprobe: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution.
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install parted |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install parted |
| Alpine | apk add parted |
| Arch Linux | pacman -S parted |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install parted |
| CentOS | yum install parted |
| Fedora | dnf install parted |
| Raspbian | apt-get install parted |
partprobe Command Examples
1. Notify the operating system kernel of partition table changes:
# partprobe
2. Notify the kernel of partition table changes and show a summary of devices and their partitions:
# partprobe --summary
3. Show a summary of devices and their partitions but don’t notify the kernel:
# partprobe --summary --dry-run
Note: Although you can check the partitions just created without running the partprobe command first, it is always a good idea to run this command first. Forcing a reread of the partition table ensures that you get the latest information from your system and that no strange errors or outdated information is returned.