KPMcore

KPMcore, the KDE Partition Manager core, is a library for examining and modifying partitions, disk devices, and filesystems on a Linux system. It provides a unified programming interface over top of (external) system-manipulation tools.

KPMcore is a library for examining and manipulating all facets of storage devices on a system:

• raw disk devices
• partition tables on a device
• filesystems within a partition

There are multiple backends so that KPMcore can support different operating systems, although the only functional backend is the one for Linux systems:

• libparted backend (Linux)
• null backend

Using KPMcore

Most of the usage information on KPMcore is included in the API documentation; this section contains only high-level usage information.

Finding KPMcore with CMake

KPMcore supports CMake as (meta-)build system and installs suitable CMake support files. Typical use of of KPMcore in a CMakeLists.txt looks like this:

    find_package( KPMcore 3.2 REQUIRED )
    include_directories( ${KPMCORE_INCLUDE_DIR} )
    target_link_libraries( target kpmcore )

There are no imported targets defined for KPMcore.

Initialization

An application must initialize the library and load a suitable backend before using KPMcore functions. By convention, the environment variable KPMCORE_BACKEND names a backend, and typical initialization code will look like this (or use the class KPMCoreInitializer from test/helpers.h):

    #include <kpmcore/backend/corebackendmanager.h>
    #include <QDebug>

    bool initKPMcore()
    {
        static bool inited = false;
        if ( inited ) return true;

        QByteArray env = qgetenv( "KPMCORE_BACKEND" );
        auto backendName = env.isEmpty() ? CoreBackendManager::defaultBackendName() : env;
        if ( !CoreBackendManager::self()->load( backendName )
        {
            qWarning() << "Failed to load backend plugin" << backendName;
            return false;
        }
        inited = true;
        return true;
    }

This code uses the environment variable if set, and otherwise falls back to a default backend suitable for the current platform.

Calling KPMcore functions before the library is initialized will result in undefined behavior.

Devices [FIXME: WIP]

Backend device scanner

After the backend is initialized you can scan for available devices. If you only want devices from the loaded backend you can call

    QList<Device*> devices = backend->scanDevices( excludeReadOnly );

where bool option excludeReadOnly specifies whether to exclude read only devices.

KPMcore device scanner

Alternatively, you can use KPMcore device scanner which also finds LVM Volume Groups.

    // First create operationStack with another QObject as parent.
    OperationStack *operationStack = new OperationStack(parent);
    DeviceScanner *deviceScanner = new DeviceScanner(parent, *operationStack));
    deviceScanner->start();

The deviceScanner scans for the devices in a background thread. After scanning is complete DeviceScanner::finished() signal will be emitted. Then the devices can accessed using operationStack->previewDevices().