1 .TH LVM 8 "LVM TOOLS #VERSION#" "Sistina Software UK" \" -*- nroff -*-
8 \fBlvm\fP provides the command-line tools for LVM2. A separate
9 manual page describes each command in detail.
11 If \fBlvm\fP is invoked with no arguments it presents a readline prompt
12 (assuming it was compiled with readline support).
13 LVM commands may be entered interactively at this prompt with
14 readline facilities including history and command name and option
15 completion. Refer to \fBreadline\fP(3) for details.
17 If \fBlvm\fP is invoked with argv[0] set to the name of a specific
18 LVM command (for example by using a hard or soft link) it acts as
21 On invocation, \fBlvm\fP requires that only the standard file descriptors
22 stdin, stdout and stderr are available. If others are found, they
23 get closed and messages are issued warning about the leak.
25 Where commands take VG or LV names as arguments, the full path name is
26 optional. An LV called "lvol0" in a VG called "vg0" can be specified
27 as "vg0/lvol0". Where a list of VGs is required but is left empty,
28 a list of all VGs will be substituted. Where a list of LVs is required
29 but a VG is given, a list of all the LVs in that VG will be substituted.
30 So "lvdisplay vg0" will display all the LVs in "vg0".
31 Tags can also be used - see \fBaddtag\fP below.
33 One advantage of using the built-in shell is that configuration
34 information gets cached internally between commands.
36 A file containing a simple script with one command per line
37 can also be given on the command line. The script can also be
38 executed directly if the first line is #! followed by the absolute
41 The following commands are built into lvm without links normally
42 being created in the filesystem for them.
44 \fBdumpconfig\fP \(em Display the configuration information after
45 loading \fBlvm.conf\fP (5) and any other configuration files.
47 \fBformats\fP \(em Display recognised metadata formats.
49 \fBhelp\fP \(em Display the help text.
51 \fBpvdata\fP \(em Not implemented in LVM2.
53 \fBsegtypes\fP \(em Display recognised logical volume segment types.
55 \fBversion\fP \(em Display version information.
58 The following commands implement the core LVM functionality.
60 \fBpvchange\fP \(em Change attributes of a physical volume.
62 \fBpvck\fP \(em Check physical volume metadata.
64 \fBpvcreate\fP \(em Initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM.
66 \fBpvdisplay\fP \(em Display attributes of a physical volume.
68 \fBpvmove\fP \(em Move physical extents.
70 \fBpvremove\fP \(em Remove a physical volume.
72 \fBpvresize\fP \(em Resize a disk or partition in use by LVM2.
74 \fBpvs\fP \(em Report information about physical volumes.
76 \fBpvscan\fP \(em Scan all disks for physical volumes.
78 \fBvgcfgbackup\fP \(em Backup volume group descriptor area.
80 \fBvgcfgrestore\fP \(em Restore volume group descriptor area.
82 \fBvgchange\fP \(em Change attributes of a volume group.
84 \fBvgck\fP \(em Check volume group metadata.
86 \fBvgconvert\fP \(em Convert volume group metadata format.
88 \fBvgcreate\fP \(em Create a volume group.
90 \fBvgdisplay\fP \(em Display attributes of volume groups.
92 \fBvgexport\fP \(em Make volume groups unknown to the system.
94 \fBvgextend\fP \(em Add physical volumes to a volume group.
96 \fBvgimport\fP \(em Make exported volume groups known to the system.
98 \fBvgimportclone\fP \(em Import and rename duplicated volume group (e.g. a hardware snapshot).
100 \fBvgmerge\fP \(em Merge two volume groups.
102 \fBvgmknodes\fP \(em Recreate volume group directory and logical volume special files
104 \fBvgreduce\fP \(em Reduce a volume group by removing one or more physical volumes.
106 \fBvgremove\fP \(em Remove a volume group.
108 \fBvgrename\fP \(em Rename a volume group.
110 \fBvgs\fP \(em Report information about volume groups.
112 \fBvgscan\fP \(em Scan all disks for volume groups and rebuild caches.
114 \fBvgsplit\fP \(em Split a volume group into two, moving any logical volumes from one volume group to another by moving entire physical volumes.
116 \fBlvchange\fP \(em Change attributes of a logical volume.
118 \fBlvconvert\fP \(em Convert a logical volume from linear to mirror or snapshot.
120 \fBlvcreate\fP \(em Create a logical volume in an existing volume group.
122 \fBlvdisplay\fP \(em Display attributes of a logical volume.
124 \fBlvextend\fP \(em Extend the size of a logical volume.
126 \fBlvmchange\fP \(em Change attributes of the logical volume manager.
128 \fBlvmdiskscan\fP \(em Scan for all devices visible to LVM2.
130 \fBlvmdump\fP \(em Create lvm2 information dumps for diagnostic purposes.
132 \fBlvreduce\fP \(em Reduce the size of a logical volume.
134 \fBlvremove\fP \(em Remove a logical volume.
136 \fBlvrename\fP \(em Rename a logical volume.
138 \fBlvresize\fP \(em Resize a logical volume.
140 \fBlvs\fP \(em Report information about logical volumes.
142 \fBlvscan\fP \(em Scan (all disks) for logical volumes.
144 The following commands are not implemented in LVM2 but might be in the future: lvmsadc, lvmsar, pvdata.
146 The following options are available for many of the commands.
147 They are implemented generically and documented here rather
148 than repeated on individual manual pages.
150 \fB-h | --help\fP \(em Display the help text.
152 \fB--version\fP \(em Display version information.
154 \fB-v | --verbose\fP \(em Set verbose level.
155 Repeat from 1 to 3 times to increase the detail of messages
156 sent to stdout and stderr. Overrides config file setting.
158 \fB-d | --debug\fP \(em Set debug level.
159 Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail of messages sent
160 to the log file and/or syslog (if configured).
161 Overrides config file setting.
163 \fB--quiet\fP \(em Suppress output and log messages.
166 \fB-t | --test\fP \(em Run in test mode.
167 Commands will not update metadata.
168 This is implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless
169 returning success to the calling function. This may lead to unusual
170 error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies on reading
171 back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.
173 \fB--driverloaded\fP { \fBy\fP | \fBn\fP }
174 Whether or not the device-mapper kernel driver is loaded.
175 If you set this to \fBn\fP, no attempt will be made to contact the driver.
177 \fB-A | --autobackup\fP { \fBy\fP | \fBn\fP }
178 Whether or not to metadata should be backed up automatically after a change.
179 You are strongly advised not to disable this!
184 When set, the tools will do their best to provide access to volume groups
185 that are only partially available (one or more physical volumes belonging
186 to the volume group are missing from the system). Where part of a logical
187 volume is missing, \fB/dev/ioerror\fP will be substituted, and you could use
188 \fBdmsetup (8)\fP to set this up to return I/O errors when accessed,
189 or create it as a large block device of nulls. Metadata may not be
190 changed with this option. To insert a replacement physical volume
191 of the same or large size use \fBpvcreate -u\fP to set the uuid to
192 match the original followed by \fBvgcfgrestore (8)\fP.
194 \fB-M | --metadatatype type\fP
195 Specifies which type of on-disk metadata to use, such as \fBlvm1\fP
196 or \fBlvm2\fP, which can be abbreviated to \fB1\fP or \fB2\fP respectively.
197 The default (lvm2) can be changed by setting \fBformat\fP in the \fBglobal\fP
198 section of the config file.
200 \fB--ignorelockingfailure\fP
201 This lets you proceed with read-only metadata operations such as
202 \fBlvchange -ay\fP and \fBvgchange -ay\fP even if the locking module fails.
203 One use for this is in a system init script if the lock directory
204 is mounted read-only when the script runs.
207 Add the tag \fBtag\fP to a PV, VG or LV.
208 Supply this argument multiple times to add more than one tag at once.
209 A tag is a word that can be used to group LVM2 objects of the same type
211 Tags can be given on the command line in place of PV, VG or LV
212 arguments. Tags should be prefixed with @ to avoid ambiguity.
213 Each tag is expanded by replacing it with all objects possessing
214 that tag which are of the type expected by its position on the command line.
215 PVs can only possess tags while they are part of a Volume Group:
216 PV tags are discarded if the PV is removed from the VG.
217 As an example, you could tag some LVs as \fBdatabase\fP and others
218 as \fBuserdata\fP and then activate the database ones
219 with \fBlvchange -ay @database\fP.
220 Objects can possess multiple tags simultaneously.
221 Only the new LVM2 metadata format supports tagging: objects using the
222 LVM1 metadata format cannot be tagged because the on-disk format does not
224 Snapshots cannot be tagged.
225 Characters allowed in tags are: A-Z a-z 0-9 _ + . - and
226 as of version 2.02.78 the following characters are also
227 accepted: / = ! : # &
230 Delete the tag \fBtag\fP from a PV, VG or LV, if it's present.
231 Supply this argument multiple times to remove more than one tag at once.
233 \fB--alloc AllocationPolicy\fP
234 The allocation policy to use: \fBcontiguous\fP, \fBcling\fP, \fBnormal\fP, \fBanywhere\fP or \fBinherit\fP.
235 When a command needs to allocate physical extents from the volume group,
236 the allocation policy controls how they are chosen.
237 Each volume group and logical volume has an allocation policy.
238 The default for a volume group is \fBnormal\fP which applies
239 common-sense rules such as not placing parallel stripes on the same
240 physical volume. The default for a logical volume is \fBinherit\fP
241 which applies the same policy as for the volume group. These policies can
242 be changed using \fBlvchange\fP (8) and \fBvgchange\fP (8) or over-ridden
243 on the command line of any command that performs allocation.
244 The \fBcontiguous\fP policy requires that new extents be placed adjacent
246 The \fBcling\fP policy places new extents on the same physical
247 volume as existing extents in the same stripe of the Logical Volume.
248 If there are sufficient free extents to satisfy
249 an allocation request but \fBnormal\fP doesn't use them,
250 \fBanywhere\fP will - even if that reduces performance by
251 placing two stripes on the same physical volume.
253 N.B. The policies described above are not implemented fully yet.
254 In particular, contiguous free space cannot be broken up to
255 satisfy allocation attempts.
256 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
259 Directory containing lvm.conf and other LVM
261 Defaults to "#DEFAULT_SYS_DIR#".
264 Directory containing .lvm_history if the internal readline shell
268 The volume group name that is assumed for
269 any reference to a logical volume that doesn't specify a path.
272 The following characters are valid for VG and LV names:
273 \fBa-z A-Z 0-9 + _ . -\fP
275 VG and LV names cannot begin with a hyphen.
276 There are also various reserved names that are used internally by lvm that can not be used as LV or VG names.
277 A VG cannot be called anything that exists in /dev/ at the time of creation, nor can it be called '.' or '..'.
278 A LV cannot be called '.' '..' 'snapshot' or 'pvmove'. The LV name may also not contain the strings '_mlog' or '_mimage'
282 All tools return a status code of zero on success or non-zero on failure.
284 .I #DEFAULT_SYS_DIR#/lvm.conf
286 .I $HOME/.lvm_history
317 .BR vgimportclone (8),
projects / external / device-mapper.git / blob