[Bug 1283493] Re: Name "EFI boot partition" is non-standard

[Roderick Smith]

It's referred to as an "EFI System Partition" (or sometimes a "UEFI
System Partition") in the EFI spec, so IMHO that's the name that should
be used when referring to it in any "official" way within Ubuntu.
Although there are, AFAIK, no other EFI partitions, IMHO it's important
to use the name as it appears in the EFI documentation; significant
deviation or shortening will raise doubts in users' minds about whether
two documents or programs refer to the same partition. Furthermore,
although the EFI spec doesn't compress "EFI System Partition" into an
acronym, that's common practice -- many people and documents refer to
the "ESP." The term "EFI partition," of course, does not lead logically
to "ESP" as an acronym.

I've filed bug #739824 with Debian on this issue
(https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=739824).

** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #739824
   http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=739824

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1283493

Title:
  Name "EFI boot partition" is non-standard

Status in “partman-efi” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in “partman-efi” package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  Ubiquity refers to the EFI System Partition (ESP) as an "EFI boot
  partition." The latter name is non-standard; AFAIK, it's used *only*
  in ubiquity. It's therefore potentially confusing to users, who may
  wonder how (or even if) the "EFI boot partition" relates to the ESP.

  Unfortunately, this problem is pretty widespread. The EFI standards
  document all use the term "EFI System Partition" or "UEFI System
  Partition." Although the acronym "ESP" is in common use, it doesn't
  appear in the EFI spec. GParted and parted identify an ESP as having
  its "boot flag" set, which is a phenomenal fail on a user interface
  level -- but that's not the point of this bug report. My own GPT fdisk
  (gdisk) uses the term "EFI System" (with "partition" being implicit).
  Users often refer to the "EFI partition" -- see for instance
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI.

  As somebody who communicates with users in forums, I find that there's
  a lot of confusion about the ESP because of the number of unique names
  that are being used to refer to the same thing. Hence this bug report:
  If Ubiquity simply changes "EFI boot partition" to "EFI System
  Partition," one source of confusion and frustration will be
  eliminated.

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