Feature idea: wipefs --recursive

[t-8ch]

Intended behavior: wipefs --recursive would operate on the specified device and its subdevices, for example all the partitions of a disk.

This would make it easier to get all unwanted signature.

It would solve a problem I experienced, where wiping the partition table of disk lead to the provisioning tool recreating an identical one and then rediscovering the old filesystems.

[karelzak]

You can use wipefs /dev/sda* to wipe all partitions and whole-disk device.

[t-8ch]

This would only work for partitions of the default /dev/* names. Using /dev/disk/by- symlinks or more elaborate child devices would require additional work.

As this is really only QoL-improvement feel free to close the ticket if you think it's not worth it.

[karelzak]

Hmm ... a good point. You're right that getting a partition name on the command line could be tricky in some cases.

Do we have any command for this purpose, something like "lspart /dev/sda"? (I do not mean fdisk because it parses partition table, and it does not care how partitions are mapped to /dev nodes.)

[t-8ch]

Wouldn't it be better to also wipe sub-devices that are not partitions? For example lvm PVs, bcache caches, luks volumes, etc.
Then it would be more or less what lsblk /dev/sda would do.