RemoveAppleRecoveryPartition.sh

#!/bin/sh

# This script automatically:
#    finds the recovery partition installed by Apple
#    sets variables to identify it and the parent partition above it
#    erase the recovery partition
#    merge the partition up into its parent

# Last update June 11th, 2013

# Free to use and share
# Just include these lines of code. Copyright© David Koff, 2013

#----------------------------------------------------------
#   Variables
#----------------------------------------------------------

#-----Assignments
SCRIPTNAME=$0

#-----Logging
# use WHATEVER log file suits you best. this is ours.
exec >> "/Library/Logs/Getty Installations.log" 2>&1  ## must be run as admin or root for exec to work

#-----Computations
# establish the drive pattern for the disk(s) in question
DevRoot=`diskutil list | grep Recovery | cut -c 69-74`

# isolate the last digit of that partition ID
DevID=`diskutil list | grep Recovery | cut -c 75`

# set the variable which contains the FULL drive ID of the recovery partition
recoveryPart="$DevRoot$DevID"
echo "The recovery partition we're erasing is: $recoveryPart"

# we know the main partition is one digit LESS on the chain
let mergeID=DevID-1

# set the variable for the drive partition into which we'd like to merge
mergePart="$DevRoot$mergeID"
echo "The partition into which we're merging is: $mergePart"

# find the NAME of the merge partition by setting variable
mergeName=`diskutil list | grep $mergePart | cut -c 34-57`
echo "The name of the merge partition is: $mergeName"

#----------------------------------------------------------
#  Timestamp
#----------------------------------------------------------
echo "                                   "
echo "###################################"
echo "##### $SCRIPTNAME"
echo "##### `date "+%A %m/%d/%Y %H:%M"`"
echo "###################################"
echo "                                   "

#----------------------------------------------------------
#  Script
#----------------------------------------------------------
echo "The Following Recovery Partition(s) has been found:"
echo $recoveryPart
echo ""

diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ Blank $recoveryPart
echo ""

echo "Now merging the space from $recoveryPart into $mergePart"
diskutil mergePartitions HFS+ $mergeName $mergePart $recoveryPart
echo ""

echo "Merging is complete. Recovery Partition has been removed."

#----------------------------------------------------------
#  Timestamp
#----------------------------------------------------------
echo "                                   "
echo "###################################"
echo "##### End Log"
echo "##### `date "+%A %m/%d/%Y %H:%M"`"
echo "###################################"
echo "                                   "

exit 0