MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table: Perl parsing library

MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table is a traditional way of MS-DOS to partition larger hard disc drives into distinct partitions.

This table is stored in the end of the boot sector (first sector) of the drive, after the bootstrap code. Original DOS 2.0 specification allowed only 4 partitions per disc, but DOS 3.2 introduced concept of "extended partitions", which work as nested extra "boot records" which are pointed to by original ("primary") partitions in MBR.

KS implementation details

License: CC0-1.0

References

This page hosts a formal specification of MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table using Kaitai Struct. This specification can be automatically translated into a variety of programming languages to get a parsing library.

Perl source code to parse MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table

MbrPartitionTable.pm

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# This is a generated file! Please edit source .ksy file and use kaitai-struct-compiler to rebuild

use strict;
use warnings;
use IO::KaitaiStruct 0.009_000;

########################################################################
package MbrPartitionTable;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{bootstrap_code} = $self->{_io}->read_bytes(446);
    $self->{partitions} = ();
    my $n_partitions = 4;
    for (my $i = 0; $i < $n_partitions; $i++) {
        push @{$self->{partitions}}, MbrPartitionTable::PartitionEntry->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    }
    $self->{boot_signature} = $self->{_io}->read_bytes(2);
}

sub bootstrap_code {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{bootstrap_code};
}

sub partitions {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{partitions};
}

sub boot_signature {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{boot_signature};
}

########################################################################
package MbrPartitionTable::PartitionEntry;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{status} = $self->{_io}->read_u1();
    $self->{chs_start} = MbrPartitionTable::Chs->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{partition_type} = $self->{_io}->read_u1();
    $self->{chs_end} = MbrPartitionTable::Chs->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{lba_start} = $self->{_io}->read_u4le();
    $self->{num_sectors} = $self->{_io}->read_u4le();
}

sub status {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{status};
}

sub chs_start {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{chs_start};
}

sub partition_type {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{partition_type};
}

sub chs_end {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{chs_end};
}

sub lba_start {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{lba_start};
}

sub num_sectors {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{num_sectors};
}

########################################################################
package MbrPartitionTable::Chs;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{head} = $self->{_io}->read_u1();
    $self->{b2} = $self->{_io}->read_u1();
    $self->{b3} = $self->{_io}->read_u1();
}

sub sector {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{sector} if ($self->{sector});
    $self->{sector} = ($self->b2() & 63);
    return $self->{sector};
}

sub cylinder {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{cylinder} if ($self->{cylinder});
    $self->{cylinder} = ($self->b3() + (($self->b2() & 192) << 2));
    return $self->{cylinder};
}

sub head {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{head};
}

sub b2 {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{b2};
}

sub b3 {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{b3};
}

1;