I am using macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.2.
The following two examples indicate that a disk is only allowed one APPLE_APFS partition.
The output below from a Terminal application window shows that that
diskutil partitiondisk disk1 2 gpt apfs Mac1 500g apfs Mac2 r
command fails to create two APPLE_APFS partitions.
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil unmountdisk disk1 Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil partitiondisk disk1 2 gpt apfs Mac1 500g apfs Mac2 r You may not specify more than one APFS Container per partition map Marlin:sbin davidanderson$
The output below from a Terminal application window shows that both the
diskutil apfs createcontainer disk1s3
and
diskutil apfs create disk1s3 Mac2
commands fail to create a second APPLE_APFS partition.
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil list external /dev/disk1 (disk image): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme +1.0 TB disk1 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 500.0 GB disk1s2 3: Apple_HFS Mac2 499.7 GB disk1s3 /dev/disk2 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +500.0 GB disk2 Physical Store disk1s2 1: APFS Volume Mac1 24.6 KB disk2s1 Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil apfs createcontainer disk1s3 Creating container with disk1s3 Started APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2 Creating a new empty APFS Container Error: -69615: At least one APFS Physical Store already exists on your partition map Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil apfs create disk1s3 Mac2 Started APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2 Creating a new empty APFS Container Error: -69615: At least one APFS Physical Store already exists on your partition map Marlin:sbin davidanderson$
The following example shows how to create two APPLE_APFS partitions on the same disk.
The output below from a Terminal application window shows that the
diskutil apfs convert disk1s3
command creates a second APPLE_APFS partition.
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil list external /dev/disk1 (disk image): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme +1.0 TB disk1 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 500.0 GB disk1s2 3: Apple_HFS Mac2 499.7 GB disk1s3 /dev/disk2 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +500.0 GB disk2 Physical Store disk1s2 1: APFS Volume Mac1 24.6 KB disk2s1 Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil apfs convert disk1s3 Started APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2 Converting HFS Volume to an APFS Container which will export one APFS Volume The target is the Journaled HFS+ volume "Mac2" backed by the GPT partition disk1s3 The target is a data disk; it is not a macOS system disk Found APFS EFI driver /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi to install into the APFS Container The target is not encrypted Unmounting disk1s3 Starting conversion from HFS to APFS Performing apfs_hfs_convert -x --verbose=0x400 --efi /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi /dev/disk1s3 Reporting pre-conversion statistics Reporting post-conversion statistics Successfully finished conversion from HFS to APFS Successful conversion in commit mode so will switch type to APFS Setting type of disk1s3 to APFS Changing the physical disk partition type in shared mode Partition modification attempt count was 1 Opening and closing disk1s3 to terminate old content driver Expecting the new APFS Container at Physical Store disk1s3 Confirmed existence of new unencrypted APFS Volume disk3s1 Mounting APFS Volume disk3s1 APFS Volume mount attempt result was 0 Exiting conversion operations with error code 0 Disk from APFS operation: disk3s1 Finished APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2 Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil list external /dev/disk1 (disk image): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme +1.0 TB disk1 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 500.0 GB disk1s2 3: Apple_APFS Container disk3 499.7 GB disk1s3 /dev/disk2 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +500.0 GB disk2 Physical Store disk1s2 1: APFS Volume Mac1 24.6 KB disk2s1 /dev/disk3 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.7 GB disk3 Physical Store disk1s3 1: APFS Volume Mac2 32.8 KB disk3s1 Marlin:sbin davidanderson$
So, is there a bug in the commands that will not create a second APPLE_APFS partition? Or, is the bug in the command that creates a second APPLE_APFS partition?