docs: improve formatting and wording of man pages for fdisk and cfdisk

Signed-off-by: Benno Schulenberg <bensberg@justemail.net>

1 files changed, 55 insertions, 57 deletions

diff --git a/fdisks/cfdisk.8 b/fdisks/cfdisk.8
index efd33ce70..2da8a3154 100644
--- a/fdisks/cfdisk.8
+++ b/fdisks/cfdisk.8
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ cfdisk \- display or manipulate disk partition table
 .RB [ \-s
 .IR sectors-per-track ]
 .RB [ \-P
-.IR opt ]
+.IR format ]
 .RI [ device ]
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B cfdisk
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ argument are:
 .RS
 /dev/hda [default]
 /dev/hdb
-/dev/sda
+/dev/sda [the fallback when /dev/hda does not exist]
 /dev/sdb
 /dev/sdc
 /dev/sdd
@@ -46,26 +46,26 @@ argument are:
 
 Note that
 .B cfdisk
-does not align partitions to block device I/O limits. This functionality is
+does not align partitions to block-device I/O limits.  This functionality is
 provided by
 .BR fdisk (8).
 
-In order to write the partition table
+In order to write the partition table,
 .B cfdisk
 needs something called the `geometry' of the disk: the number
-of `heads' and the number of `sectors per track'. Linux does not
+of `heads' and the number of `sectors per track'.  Linux does not
 use any geometry, so if the disk will not be accessed by other
 operating systems, you can safely accept the defaults that
 .B cfdisk
-chooses for you. The geometry used by
+chooses for you.  The geometry used by
 .B cfdisk
-is found as follows. First the partition table is examined,
+is found as follows.  First the partition table is examined,
 to see what geometry was used by the previous program that
-changed it. If the partition table is empty, or contains garbage,
+changed it.  If the partition table is empty, or contains garbage,
 or does not point at a consistent geometry, the kernel is
-asked for advice. If nothing works 255 heads and 63 sectors/track
-is assumed. The geometry can be overridden on the command line
-or by use of the `g' command. When partitioning an empty large modern
+asked for advice.  If nothing works, 255 heads and 63 sectors/track
+are assumed.  The geometry can be overridden on the command line
+or by use of the `g' command.  When partitioning an empty large modern
 disk, picking 255 heads and 63 sectors/track is always a good idea.
 There is no need to set the number of cylinders, since
 .B cfdisk
@@ -83,22 +83,22 @@ option.  This will ignore the partition table on the disk.
 
 The main display is composed of four sections, from top to bottom: the
 header, the partitions, the command line and a warning line.  The
-header contains the program name and version number followed by the
-disk drive and its geometry.  The partitions section always displays
+header gives the program name and version number followed by information about
+the disk drive and its geometry.  The partitions section always displays
 the current partition table.  The command line is the place where
 commands and text are entered.  The available commands are usually
 displayed in brackets.  The warning line is usually empty except when
 there is important information to be displayed.  The current partition
-is highlighted with reverse video (or an arrow if the
+is highlighted with reverse video (or with an arrow if the
 .B \-a
-option is given).  All partition specific commands apply to the
+option is given).  All partition-specific commands apply to the
 current partition.
 
 The format of the partition table in the partitions section is, from
 left to right: Name, Flags, Partition Type, Filesystem Type and Size.
-The name is the partition device name.  The flags can be
+The name is the device name of the partition.  The flags can be
 .IR Boot ,
-which designates a bootable partition or
+which designates a bootable partition, or
 .IR NC ,
 which stands for "Not Compatible with DOS or OS/2".  DOS, OS/2 and
 possibly other operating systems require the first sector of the first
@@ -132,8 +132,8 @@ the change units command below).  If an asterisk
 .RB ( * )
 appears after the size, this means that the partition is not aligned
 on cylinder boundaries.
-.SH "DOS 6.x WARNING"
 
+.SH "DOS 6.x WARNING"
 The DOS 6.x FORMAT command looks for some information in the first
 sector of the data area of the partition, and treats this information
 as more reliable than the information in the partition table.  DOS
@@ -150,14 +150,14 @@ format the partition.  For example, if you were using cfdisk to make a DOS
 partition table entry for /dev/hda1, then (after exiting fdisk or cfdisk
 and rebooting Linux so that the partition table information is valid) you
 would use the command "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1" to zero
-the first 512 bytes of the partition. Note:
+the first 512 bytes of the partition.  Note:
 
 .B BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL
 if you use the
 .B dd
 command, since a small typo can make all of the data on your disk useless.
 
-For best results, you should always use an OS-specific partition table
+For best results, you should always use an OS-specific partition-table
 program.  For example, you should make DOS partitions with the DOS FDISK
 program and Linux partitions with the Linux fdisk or Linux cfdisk program.
 
@@ -182,8 +182,8 @@ space or marked as unusable cannot be deleted.
 Change the disk geometry (cylinders, heads, or sectors-per-track).
 .B WARNING:
 This option should only be used by people who know what they are
-doing.  A command line option is also available to change the disk
-geometry.  While at the change disk geometry command line, you can
+doing.  A command-line option is also available to change the disk
+geometry.  While at the change-disk-geometry command line, you can
 choose to change cylinders
 .RB ( c ),
 heads
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ desired value and press
 The altered disk parameter values do not take effect until you return
 to the main menu (by pressing
 .IR Enter " or " ESC
-at the change disk geometry command line).  If you change the geometry
+at the change-disk-geometry command line).  If you change the geometry
 such that the disk appears larger, the extra sectors are added at the
 end of the disk as free space.  If the disk appears smaller, the
 partitions that are beyond the new last sector are deleted and the
@@ -221,21 +221,21 @@ etc. compatible disk usage.  The default when creating a partition is
 to create DOS, OS/2, etc. compatible partitions.
 .TP
 .B n
-Create new partition from free space.  If the partition type is
+Create a new partition from free space.  If the partition type is
 .IR Primary " or " Logical ,
 a partition of that type will be created, but if the partition type is
 .IR Pri/Log ,
 you will be prompted for the type you want to create.  Be aware that
 (1) there are only four slots available for primary partitions and (2)
 since there can be only one extended partition, which contains all of
-the logical drives, all of the logical drives must be contiguous (with
-no intervening primary partition).
+the logical partitions, all the logical partitions must be contiguous
+(with no intervening primary partition).
 .B cfdisk
 next prompts you for the size of the partition you want to create.
-The default size, equal to the entire free space of the current
-partition, is displayed in megabytes.  You can either press the
+The default size, equal to the entire available free space at the current
+position, is displayed in megabytes.  You can either press the
 .I Enter
-key to accept the default size or enter a different size at the
+key to accept the default size, or enter a different size at the
 prompt.
 .B cfdisk
 accepts size entries in megabytes
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ cylinders
 and sectors
 .RB ( S )
 by entering the number immediately followed by one of
-.RB ( M ", " K ", " C " or " S ).
+.BR M ", " K ", " C " or " S .
 If the partition fills the free space available, the partition is
 created and you are returned to the main command line.  Otherwise, the
 partition can be created at the beginning or the end of the free
@@ -260,8 +260,8 @@ automatically adjusts the other partitions' partition types if all of
 the primary partitions are used.
 .TP
 .B p
-Print the partition table to the screen or to a file. There are
-several different formats for the partition that you can choose from:
+Print the partition table to the screen or to a file.  There are
+three different formats for the partition that you can choose from:
 .sp
 .RS
 .TP
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ several different formats for the partition that you can choose from:
 Raw data format (exactly what would be written to disk)
 .TP
 .B s
-Partition table in sector order format
+Partition table in sector-order format
 .TP
 .B t
 Partition table in raw format
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ partition.  The data is printed in hex byte by byte with 16 bytes per
 line.
 
 The
-.I partition table in sector order format
+.I partition table in sector-order format
 will print the partition table ordered by sector number.  The fields,
 from left to right, are the number of the partition, the partition
 type, the first sector, the last sector, the offset from the first
@@ -302,9 +302,9 @@ partition length is not divisible by the cylinder size, an asterisk
 is printed after the non-aligned sector number/count.  This usually
 indicates that a partition was created by an operating system that
 either does not align partitions to cylinder boundaries or that used
-different disk geometry information.  If you know the disk geometry of
+different disk-geometry information.  If you know the disk geometry of
 the other operating system, you could enter the geometry information
-with the change geometry command
+with the change-geometry command
 .RB ( g ).
 
 For the first partition on the disk and for all logical partitions, if
@@ -356,27 +356,24 @@ filesystem type at the prompt or accept the default filesystem type
 .RI [ Linux ].
 .TP
 .B u
-Change units of the partition size display.  It will rotate through
-megabytes, sectors and cylinders.
+Change the unit of the partition-size display.  It will rotate through
+megabytes, sectors, and cylinders.
 .TP
 .B W
-Write partition table to disk (must enter an upper case W).  Since
+Write the partition table to disk (you must enter an uppercase W).  Since
 this might destroy data on the disk, you must either confirm or deny
 the write by entering `yes' or `no'.  If you enter `yes',
 .B cfdisk
-will write the partition table to disk and the tell the kernel to re-read the
+will write the partition table to disk and then tell the kernel to re-read the
 partition table from the disk.  The re-reading of the partition table does not
 work in some cases, for example for device-mapper devices.  In
-particular case you need to inform kernel about new
-partitions by
+such a case you need to inform the kernel about new partitions by
 .BR partprobe (8),
 .BR kpartx (8)
 or reboot the system.
 .TP
-.I Up Arrow
-.TP
-.I Down Arrow
-Move cursor to the previous or next partition.  If there are more
+.IR "Up Arrow" , " Down Arrow"
+Move the cursor to the previous or next partition.  If there are more
 partitions than can be displayed on a screen, you can display the next
 (previous) set of partitions by moving down (up) at the last (first)
 partition displayed on the screen.
@@ -391,10 +388,11 @@ Print the help screen.
 .RE
 All of the commands can be entered with either upper or lower case
 letters (except for
-.BR W rites).
+.BR W rite).
 When in a sub-menu or at a prompt to enter a filename, you can hit the
 .I ESC
 key to return to the main command line.
+
 .SH OPTIONS
 .TP
 \fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-arrow\fR
@@ -406,34 +404,34 @@ Do not use the geometry given by the disk driver, but try to
 guess a geometry from the partition table.
 .TP
 \fB\-v\fR, \fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
-Print the version number and copyright.
+Display version information and exit.
 .TP
 \fB\-z\fR, \fB\-\-zero\fR
-Start with zeroed partition table.  This option is useful when you
+Start with a zeroed partition table.  This option is useful when you
 want to repartition your entire disk.
 .I Note:
 this option does not zero the partition table on the disk; rather, it
 simply starts the program without reading the existing partition
 table.
 .TP
-\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-cylinders\fR \fcylinders\fR
+\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-cylinders\fR \fIcylinders\fR
 .TP
 \fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-heads\fR \fIheads\fR
 .TP
-\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-sectors\fR \fsectors-per-track\fR
+\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-sectors\fR \fIsectors-per-track\fR
 Override the number of cylinders, heads and sectors per track read
 from the BIOS.  If your BIOS or adapter does not supply this
 information or if it supplies incorrect information, use these options
 to set the disk geometry values.
 .TP
-\fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-print\fR \fIr|s|t\fR
-Prints the partition table in specified formats.
-.I opt
-can be one or more of "r", "s" or "t".  See the
+\fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-print\fR \fBr\fR|\fBs\fR|\fBt\fR
+Print the partition table in the specified format(s).
+See the
 .BR p rint
-command (above) for more information on the print formats.
+command (above) for more information on what the available formats show.
+
 .SH "EXIT STATUS"
-0: No errors; 1: Invocation error; 2: I/O error;
+0: no errors; 1: invocation error; 2: I/O error;
 3: cannot get geometry; 4: bad partition table on disk.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR fdisk (8),