Growing root... The final act. The partition table updated. The file system recognized the new boundaries. This was instant. The bar filled with green.
A key concept is that a partition is merely a defined range of sectors on a disk. Resizing involves either growing the partition into unallocated space immediately following it or shrinking the partition by moving its end boundary inward. The operation is only possible if the adjacent space is free. Moreover, gpart modifies the partition table, but it resize the file system inside the partition. Consequently, any resize operation must be paired with an appropriate file system resize command (e.g., growfs for UFS or zfs online expand for ZFS). gpart resize partition
"Apply," he said, clicking the checkmark icon. Growing root
The window changed. A progress bar appeared. The file system recognized the new boundaries
Elias exhaled, his shoulders dropping three inches. He rebooted the machine.
The room was silent, save for the whir of the cooling fans. One hour passed. Then two. The progress bar sat at 45%. Don't crash, Elias thought. Don't flicker.
The interface loaded. It looked like a bar graph from a geometry textbook. Long, colored rectangles represented the data on his drive.