pyparted
Python bindings for libparted
Overview
pyparted is a set of native Python bindings for libparted. libparted is the library portion of the GNU parted project. With pyparted, you can write applications that interact with disk partition tables and filesystems.
The Python bindings are implemented in two layers. Since libparted itself is written in C without any real implementation of objects, a simple 1:1 mapping of externally accessible libparted functions was written. This mapping is provided in the _ped Python module. You can use that module if you want to, but it's really just meant for the larger parted module.
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| _ped | libparted Python bindings, direct 1:1: function mapping |
| parted | Native Python code building on _ped, complete with classes, exceptions, and advanced functionality. |
The _ped module is written and maintained by hand. I chose to do this rather than rely on a tool like SWIG or Pyrex for several reasons. Mostly because I was the GNU parted maintainer, but also because libparted is sort of complex. It's a lowlevel system tool and I found it doesn't translate well in the tools I tried. This is nothing against those tools, I just don't think libparted is ideal to go through SWIG or Pyrex. By writing my own bindings, I can also find bugs in libparted that I may have overlooked before. See the WHY file for more explanation as to why I wrote the bindings by hand.
History
pyparted started life at Red Hat and continues there today. The main reason for writing it was to let anaconda (the Red Hat installation program, now used by RHEL and Fedora and many other distributions) interact with libparted. Anaconda is written in Python, so native bindings made sense.
pyparted went through many rewrites, but the end result was always the same. And incomplete API via Python with just enough provided for anaconda to do its job.
The latest iteration of pyparted aims to be a complete API mapping and even provide a nice set of classes so that people might want to integrate it in to other installers or even write other applications (maybe a Python based alternative to parted(8) or fdisk(8)).
Examples
Example code is provided in the examples directory. These may help provide a gentle introduction to the usage concepts of pyparted. More examples are always welcome, as are improved explanatory commentary for those that exist.
Questions
If you are reporting a pyparted failure in Fedora, it's most useful if you file a bug at http://bugzilla.redhat.com/ against the appropriate Fedora release you are using.
Alternatively, you can file bugs directly on the project page: https://github.com/dcantrell/pyparted/issues
If you just have questions about pyparted, you can email us directly using the contact information in the AUTHORS file. We will do our best to help you.
