Provided by: lvm2_2.03.16-3ubuntu3.2_amd64 
NAME
lvmreport — LVM reporting and related features
DESCRIPTION
LVM uses single reporting infrastructure that sets standard on LVM command's output and it provides wide
range of configuration settings and command line options to customize report and filter the report's
output.
USAGE
Categorization based on reporting facility
Based on functionality, commands which make use of the reporting infrastructure are divided in two
groups:
Report-oriented commands
These commands inform about current LVM state and their primary role is to display this
information in compendious way. To make a distinction, we will name this report as main report.
The set of report-only commands include: pvs, vgs, lvs, pvdisplay, vgdisplay, lvdisplay, lvm
devtypes, lvm fullreport. For further information about main report, see Main report specifics.
Processing-oriented commands
These commands are responsible for changing LVM state and they do not contain any main report as
identified for report-oriented commands, they only perform some kind of processing. The set of
processing-oriented commands includes: pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate, pvchange, vgchange, lvchange,
pvremove, vgremove, lvremove, pvresize, vgextend, vgreduce, lvextend, lvreduce, lvresize,
lvrename, pvscan, vgscan, lvscan, pvmove, vgcfgbackup, vgck, vgconvert, vgexport, vgimport,
vgmknodes.
If enabled, so called log report is either displayed solely (for processing-oriented commands) or in
addition to main report (for report-oriented commands). The log report contains a log of operations,
messages and per-object status with complete object identification collected during LVM command
execution. See Log report specifics for more information about this report type.
Terms
When describing reporting functionality and features in this text, we will use terms row and column. By
row we mean series of values reported for single entity (for example single PV, VG or LV). Each value
from the row then belongs to a column of certain type. The columns have column headings which are short
descriptions for the columns. The columns are referenced by column names. Please note that this text is
also using term field interchangeably with the term column. Most of the time the term columns is
abbreviated as col in configuration.
Common report configuration settings and command line options
There are common configuration settings and command line options which apply to both main report and log
report. Following lists contain all of them, separated into groups based on their use.
Common configuration settings
Changing report output format, composition and other output modifiers:
- global/suffix
- global/units
- report/aligned
- report/binary_values_as_numeric
- report/columns_as_rows
- report/compact_output
- report/compact_output_cols
- report/headings
- report/list_item_separator
- report/mark_hidden_devices
- report/output_format
- report/prefixes
- report/quoted
- report/separator
- report/time_format
- report/two_word_unknown_device
Special settings
- report/buffered
This document does not describe these settings in more detail - if you need detailed information,
including values which are accepted for the settings, please run lvmconfig --type default --withcomments
<setting>. There are more configuration settings in addition to the common set listed above, but they are
specific to either main report or log report, see main report specifics and log report specifics for
these settings. Besides configuring reports globally by using configuration settings, there are also
command line options you can use to extend, override or further specify the report configuration.
Common command line options
Definition of the set of fields to use
-o|--options FieldSet
Field set to use. See main report specifics and log report specifics for information about
field sets configured with global configuration settings that this option overrides.
-o|--options +FieldSet
Fields to include to current field set. See main report specifics and log report specifics
for information about field sets configured with global configuration settings that this
option extends.
-o|--options -FieldSet
Fields to exclude from current field set. See main report specifics and log report
specifics for information about field sets configured with global configuration settings
that this option reduces.
-o|--options #FieldSet
Compaction of unused fields. Overrides report/compact_output_cols configuration setting.
Sorting
-O|--sort +FieldSet
Fields to sort by in ascending order. See main report specifics and log report specifics
for information about field sets configured with global configuration settings that this
option overrides.
-O|--sort -FieldSet
Fields to sort by in descending order. See main report specifics and log report specifics
for information about fields sets configured with global configuration settings that this
options overrides.
Selection
-S|--select Selection
Define selection criteria for report output. For log report, this also overrides
log/command_log_selection configuration setting, see also log report specifics.
Changing output format and composition
--reportformat
Overrides report/output_format configuration setting.
--aligned
Overrides report/aligned configuration setting.
--binary
Overrides report/binary_values_as_numeric configuration setting.
--nameprefixes
Overrides report/prefixes configuration setting.
--noheadings
Overrides report/noheadings configuration setting.
--nosuffix
Overrides global/suffix configuration setting.
--rows Overrides report/columns_as_rows configuration setting.
--separator
Overrides report/separator configuration setting.
--units
Overrides global/units configuration setting.
--unquoted
Overrides report/quoted configuration setting.
Special options
--configreport ReportName
This defines the ReportName for which any subsequent -o|--columns, -O|--sort or -S|--select
applies to. See also Main report specifics and Log report specifics for possible ReportName
values.
--logonly
When an LVM command contains both main report and log report, this option suppresses the
main report output and it causes the log report output to be displayed only.
--unbuffered
Overrides report/buffered configuration setting.
The FieldSet mentioned in the lists above is a set of field names where each field name is delimited by
"," character. Field set definition, sorting and selection may be repeated on command line (-o+/-o-
includes/excludes fields to/from current list, for all the other repeatable options, the last value typed
for the option on the command line is used). The Selection is a string with selection criteria, see also
Selection paragraph below for more information about constructing these criteria.
Main report specifics
The main report currently encompasses these distinct subtypes, referenced by their name - ReportName as
listed below. The command in parenthesis is representative command that uses the main report subtype by
default. Each subtype has its own configuration setting for global field set definition as well as sort
field definition (listed below each individual ReportName):
pv representing report about Physical Volumes (pvs)
- report/pvs_cols
- report/pvs_sort
pvseg representing report about Physical Volume Segments (pvs --segments)
- report/pvseg_cols
- report/pvseg_sort
vg representing report about Volume Groups (vgs)
- report/vgs_cols
- report/vgs_sort
lv representing report about Logical Volumes (lvs)
- report/lvs_cols
- report/lvs_sort
seg representing report about Logical Volume Segments (lvs --segments)
- report/segs_cols
- report/segs_sort
full representing report combining all of the above as a whole (lvm fullreport)
- report/pvs_cols_full
- report/pvs_sort_full
- report/pvsegs_cols_full
- report/pvseg_sort_full
- report/vgs_cols_full
- report/vgs_sort_full
- report/lvs_cols_full
- report/lvs_sort_full
- report/segs_cols_full
- report/segs_sort_full
devtype
representing report about device types (lvm devtypes)
- report/devtypes_cols
- report/devtypes_sort
Use pvs, vgs, lvs -o help or lvm devtypes -o help to get complete list of fields that you can use for
main report. The list of fields in the help output is separated in groups based on which report type they
belong to. Note that LVM can change final report type used if fields from different groups are combined
together. Some of these combinations are not allowed in which case LVM will issue an error.
For all main report subtypes except full, it's not necessary to use --configreport ReportName to denote
which report any subsequent -o, -O or -S option applies to as they always apply to the single main report
type. Currently, lvm fullreport is the only command that includes more than one main report subtype.
Therefore, the --configreport is particularly suitable for the full report if you need to configure each
of its subreports in a different way.
Log report specifics
You can enable log report with log/report_command_log configuration setting - this functionality is dis‐
abled by default. The log report contains a log collected during LVM command execution and then the log
is displayed just like any other report known from main report. There is only one log report subtype as
shown below together with related configuration settings for fields, sorting and selection:
log representing log report
- log/command_log_cols
- log/command_log_sort
- log/command_log_selection
You always need to use --configreport log together with -o|--options, -O|--sort or -S|--selection to
override configuration settings directly on command line for log report. When compared to main report, in
addition to usual configuration settings for report fields and sorting, the log report has also configu‐
ration option for selection - report/command_log_selection. This configuration setting is provided for
convenience so it's not necessary to use -S|--select on command line each time an LVM command is executed
and we need the same selection criteria to be applied for log report. Default selection criteria used for
log report are log/command_log_selection="!(log_type=status && message=success)". This means that, by
default, log report doesn't display status messages about successful operation and it displays only rows
with error, warning, print-type messages and messages about failure states (for more information, see log
report content below).
Log report coverage
Currently, when running LVM commands directly (not in LVM shell), the log report covers command's pro‐
cessing stage which is the moment when LVM entities are iterated and processed one by one. It does not
cover any command initialization nor command finalization stage. If there is any message issued out of
log report's coverage range, such message goes directly to output, bypassing the log report. By default,
that is standard error output for error and warning messages and standard output for common print-like
messages.
When running LVM commands in LVM shell, the log report covers the whole LVM command's execution, includ‐
ing command's processing as well as initialization and finalization stage. So from this point of view,
the log report coverage is complete for executed LVM commands. Note that there are still a few moments
when LVM shell needs to initialize itself before it even enters the main loop in which it executes LVM
commands. Also, there is a moment when LVM shell needs to prepare log report properly for next command
executed in the shell and then, after the command's run, the shell needs to display the log report for
that recently executed command. If there is a failure or any other message issued during this time, the
LVM will bypass log report and display messages on output directly.
For these reasons and for completeness, it's not possible to rely fully on log report as the only indica‐
tor of LVM command's status and the only place where all messages issued during LVM command execution are
collected. You always need to check whether the command has not failed out of log report's range by
checking the non-report output too.
To help with this, LVM can separate output which you can then redirect to any custom file descriptor that
you prepare before running an LVM command or LVM shell and then you make LVM to use these file descrip‐
tors for different kinds of output by defining environment variables with file descriptor numbers. See
also LVM_OUT_FD, LVM_ERR_FD and LVM_REPORT_FD environment variable description in lvm(8) man page.
Also note that, by default, reports use the same file descriptor as common print-like messages, which is
standard output. If you plan to use log report in your scripts or any external tool, you should use
LVM_OUT_FD, LVM_ERR_FD and LVM_REPORT_FD to separate all output types to different file descriptors. For
example, with bash, that would be:
LVM_OUT_FD=3 LVM_ERR_FD=4 LVM_REPORT_FD=5 <lvm command> 3>out_file 4>err_file 5>report_file
Where the <lvm_command> is either direct LVM command or LVM shell. You can collect all three types of
output in particular files then.
Log report content
Each item in the log report consists of these set of fields providing various information:
Basic information (mandatory):
log_seq_num
Item sequence number. The sequence number is unique for each log item and it increases in
the order of the log items as they appeared during LVM command execution.
log_type
Type of log for the item. Currently, these types are used:
status for any status information that is logged
print for any common message printed while the log is collected
error for any error message printed while the log is collected
warn for any warning message printed while the log is collected
log_context
Context of the log for the item. Currently, two contexts are identified:
shell for the log collected in the outermost code before and after executing concrete LVM
commands
processing
for the log collected while processing LVM entities during LVM command execution
Message (mandatory):
log_message
Any message associated with current item. For status log type, the message contains either
success or failure denoting current state. For print, error and warn log types, the message
contains the exact message of that type that got issued.
Object information (used only if applicable):
log_object_type field
Type of the object processed. Currently, these object types are recognized:
cmd for command as a whole
orphan for processing group of PVs not in any VG yet
pv for PV processing
label for direct PV label processing (without VG metadata)
vg for VG processing
lv for LV processing
log_object_name
Name of the object processed.
log_object_id
ID of the object processed.
log_object_group
A group where the processed object belongs to.
log_object_group_id
An ID of a group where the processed object belongs to.
Numeric status (used only if applicable):
log_errno
Error number associated with current item.
log_ret_code
Return code associated with current item.
You can also run lvm --configreport log -o help to to display complete list of fields that you may use
for the log report.
Selection
Selection is used for a report to display only rows that match selection criteria. All rows are displayed
with the additional selected field (-o selected) displaying 1 if the row matches the Selection and 0 oth‐
erwise. The selection criteria are a set of statements combined by logical and grouping operators. The
statement consists of a field name for which a set of valid values is defined using comparison operators.
For complete list of fields names that you can use in selection, see the output of lvm -S help. The help
output also contains type of values that each field displays enclosed in brackets.
List of operators recognized in selection criteria
Comparison operators (cmp_op)
=~ matching regular expression.
!~ not matching regular expression.
= equal to.
!= not equal to.
>= greater than or equal to.
> greater than
<= less than or equal to.
< less than.
Binary logical operators (cmp_log)
&& all fields must match
, all fields must match
|| at least one field must match
# at least one field must match
Unary logical operators
! logical negation
Grouping operators
( left parenthesis
) right parenthesis
[ list start
] list end
{ list subset start
} list subset end
Field types and selection operands
Field type restricts the set of operators and values that you may use with the field when defining selec‐
tion criteria. You can see field type for each field if you run lvm -S help where you can find the type
name enclosed in square brackets. Currently, LVM recognizes these field types in reports:
string for set of characters (for each string field type, you can use either string or regular ex‐
pression - regex for the value used in selection criteria)
string list
for set of strings
number for integer value
size for integer or floating point number with size unit suffix (see also lvcreate(8) man page
and description for "-L|--size" option for the list of recognized suffixes)
percent for floating point number with or without % suffix
(e.g. 50 or 50%)
time for time values
When using string list in selection criteria, there are several ways how LVM can match string list fields
from report, depending on what list grouping operator is used and what item separator is used within that
set of items. Also, note that order of items does not matter here.
• matching the set strictly where all items must match - use [ ], e.g. ["a","b","c"]
• matching a subset of the set - use { } with "," or "&&" as item delimiter, e.g. {"a","b","c"}
• matching an intersection with the set - use { } with "#" or "||" as item delimiter, e.g. {"a" || "b"
|| "c"}
When using time in your selection criteria, LVM can recognize various time formats using standard, ab‐
solute or freeform expressions. For examples demonstrating time expressions in selection criteria, see
EXAMPLES section.
• Standard time format
- date
YYYY-MM-DD
YYYY-MM, auto DD=1
YYYY, auto MM=01 and DD=01
- time
hh:mm:ss
hh:mm, auto ss=0
hh, auto mm=0, auto ss=0
- timezone
+hh:mm or -hh:mm
+hh or -hh
The full date/time specification is YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss. Users are able to leave date/time parts from
right to left. Whenever these parts are left out, a range is assumed automatically with second granu‐
larity. For example:
"2015-07-07 9:51" means range of "2015-07-07 9:51:00" - "2015-07-07 9:51:59"
"2015-07" means range of "2015-07-01 0:00:00" - "2015-07-31 23:59:59"
"2015" means range of "2015-01-01 0:00:00" - "2015-12-31 23:59:59"
• Absolute time format
Absolute time is defined as number of seconds since the Epoch (1970:01:01 00:00 +00:00).
- @seconds
• Freeform time format
- weekday names ("Sunday" - "Saturday" or abbreviated as "Sun" - "Sat")
- labels for points in time ("noon", "midnight")
- labels for a day relative to current day ("today", "yesterday")
- points back in time with relative offset from today (N is a number)
"N" "seconds" / "minutes" / "hours" / "days" / "weeks" / "years" "ago"
"N" "secs" / "mins" / "hrs" ... "ago"
"N" "s" / "m" / "h" ... "ago"
- time specification either in hh:mm:ss format or with AM/PM suffixes
- month names ("January" - "December" or abbreviated as "Jan" - "Dec")
Informal grammar specification
- STATEMENT = column cmp_op VALUE | STATEMENT log_op STATEMENT | (STATEMENT) | !(STATEMENT)
- VALUE = [VALUE log_op VALUE]
For list-based types: string list. Matches strictly. The log_op must always be of one type within the
whole list value.
- VALUE = {VALUE log_op VALUE}
For list-based types: string list. Matches a subset. The log_op must always be of one type within the
whole list value.
- VALUE = value
For scalar types: number, size, percent, string (or string regex).
EXAMPLES
Basic usage
We start our examples with default configuration - lvmconfig(8) is helpful command to display configura‐
tion settings which are currently used, including all configuration related to reporting. We will use it
throughout examples below to display current configuration.
# lvmconfig --type full global/units global/suffix \
report/output_format report/compact_output \
report/compact_output_cols report/aligned \
report/headings report/separator \
report/list_item_separator report/prefixes \
report/quoted report/columns_as_rows \
report/binary_values_as_numeric report/time_format \
report/mark_hidden_devices report/two_word_unknown_device \
report/buffered
units="h"
suffix=1
output_format="basic"
compact_output=0
compact_output_cols=""
aligned=1
headings=1
separator=" "
list_item_separator=","
prefixes=0
quoted=1
columns_as_rows=0
binary_values_as_numeric=0
time_format="%Y-%m-%d %T %z"
mark_hidden_devices=1
two_word_unknown_device=0
buffered=1
Also, we start with simple LVM layout with two PVs (/dev/sda, /dev/sdb), VG (vg) and two LVs (lvol0 and
lvol1) in the VG. We display all possible reports as single commands here, see also pvs(8), vgs(8),
lvs(8) man pages for more information. The field set for each report type is configured with configura‐
tion settings as we already mentioned in main report specifics section in this man page.
# lvmconfig --type full report/pvs_cols report/pvs_sort \
report/pvsegs_cols report/pvsegs_sort report/vgs_cols \
report/vgs_sort report/lvs_cols report/lvs_sort \
report/segs_cols report/segs_sort
pvs_cols="pv_name,vg_name,pv_fmt,pv_attr,pv_size,pv_free"
pvs_sort="pv_name"
pvsegs_cols="pv_name,vg_name,pv_fmt,pv_attr,pv_size,pv_free,
pvseg_start,pvseg_size"
pvsegs_sort="pv_name,pvseg_start"
vgs_cols="vg_name,pv_count,lv_count,snap_count,vg_attr,vg_size,vg_free"
vgs_sort="vg_name"
lvs_cols="lv_name,vg_name,lv_attr,lv_size,pool_lv,origin,move_pv,
mirror_log,copy_percent,convert_lv"
lvs_sort="vg_name,lv_name"
segs_cols="lv_name,vg_name,lv_attr,stripes,segtype,seg_size"
segs_sort="vg_name,lv_name,seg_start"
# pvs
PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/sda vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 88.00m
/dev/sdb vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 92.00m
# pvs --segments
PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree Start SSize
/dev/sda vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 88.00m 0 1
/dev/sda vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 88.00m 1 1
/dev/sda vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 88.00m 2 1
/dev/sda vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 88.00m 3 22
/dev/sdb vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 92.00m 0 1
/dev/sdb vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 92.00m 1 1
/dev/sdb vg lvm2 a-- 100.00m 92.00m 2 23
# vgs
VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
vg 2 2 0 wz--n- 200.00m 180.00m
# lvs
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
lvol0 vg -wi-a----- 4.00m
lvol1 vg rwi-a-r--- 4.00m 100.00
# lvs --segments
LV VG Attr #Str Type SSize
lvol0 vg -wi-a----- 1 linear 4.00m
lvol1 vg rwi-a-r--- 2 raid1 4.00m
We will use report/lvs_cols and report/lvs_sort configuration settings to define our own list of fields
to use and to sort by that is different from defaults. You can do this for other reports in same manner
with report/{pvs,pvseg,vgs,seg}_{cols,sort} configuration settings. Also note that in the example below,
we don't display the "lv_time" field even though we're using it for sorting - this is allowed.
# lvmconfig --type full report/lvs_cols report/lvs_sort
lvs_cols="lv_name,lv_size,origin,pool_lv,copy_percent"
lvs_sort="-lv_time"
# lvs
LV LSize Origin Pool Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
You can use -o|--options command line option to override current configuration directly on command line.
# lvs -o lv_name,lv_size
LV LSize
lvol1 4.00m
lvol0 4.00m
# lvs -o+lv_layout
LV LSize Origin Pool Cpy%Sync Layout
lvol1 4.00m 100.00 raid,raid1
lvol0 4.00m linear
# lvs -o-origin
LV LSize Pool Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
# lvs -o lv_name,lv_size,origin -o+lv_layout -o-origin -O lv_name
LV LSize Layout
lvol0 4.00m linear
lvol1 4.00m raid,raid1
You can obtain the same information with single command where all the information about PVs, PV segments,
LVs and LV segments are obtained per VG under a single VG lock for consistency, see also lvm fullre‐
port(8) man page for more information. The fullreport has its own configuration settings to define field
sets to use, similar to individual reports as displayed above, but configuration settings have "_full"
suffix now. This way, it's possible to configure different sets of fields to display and to sort by for
individual reports as well as the full report.
# lvmconfig --type full report/pvs_cols_full \
report/pvs_sort_full report/pvsegs_cols_full \
report/pvsegs_sort_full report/vgs_cols_full \
report/vgs_sort_full report/lvs_cols_full \
report/lvs_sort_full report/segs_cols_full \
report/segs_sort_full
pvs_cols_full="pv_name,vg_name"
pvs_sort_full="pv_name"
pvsegs_cols_full="pv_name,pvseg_start,pvseg_size"
pvsegs_sort_full="pv_uuid,pvseg_start"
vgs_cols_full="vg_name"
vgs_sort_full="vg_name"
lvs_cols_full="lv_name,vg_name"
lvs_sort_full="vg_name,lv_name"
segs_cols_full="lv_name,seg_start,seg_size"
segs_sort_full="lv_uuid,seg_start"
# lvm fullreport
VG
vg
PV VG
/dev/sda vg
/dev/sdb vg
LV VG
lvol0 vg
lvol1 vg
PV Start SSize
/dev/sda 0 1
/dev/sda 1 1
/dev/sda 2 1
/dev/sda 3 22
/dev/sdb 0 1
/dev/sdb 1 1
/dev/sdb 2 23
LV Start SSize
lvol0 0 4.00m
lvol1 0 4.00m
Automatic output compaction
If you look at the lvs output above, you can see that the report also contains fields for which there is
no information to display (e.g. the columns under "Origin" and "Pool" heading - the "origin" and
"pool_lv" fields). LVM can automatically compact report output so such fields are not included in final
output. To enable this feature and to compact all fields, use report/compact_output=1 in your configura‐
tion.
# lvmconfig --type full report/compact_output
compact_output=1
# lvs
LV LSize Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
# lvs vg/lvol0
LV LSize
lvol0 4.00m
Alternatively, you can define which fields should be compacted by configuring report/compact_output_cols
configuration setting (or -o|--options # command line option).
# lvmconfig --type full report/compact_output report/compact_output_cols
compact_output=0
compact_output_cols="origin"
# lvs
LV LSize Pool Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
# lvs vg/lvol0
LV LSize Pool
lvol0 4.00m
# lvs -o#pool_lv
LV LSize Origin Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
We will use report/compact_output=1 for subsequent examples.
Further formatting options
By default, LVM displays sizes in reports in human-readable form which means that the most suitable unit
is used so it's easy to read. You can use report/units configuration setting (or --units option directly
on command line) and report/suffix configuration setting (or --nosuffix command line option) to change
this.
# lvs --units b --nosuffix
LV LSize Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4194304 100.00
lvol0 4194304
If you want to configure whether report headings are displayed or not, use report/headings configuration
settings (or --noheadings command line option).
# lvs --noheadings
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
In some cases, it may be useful to display report content as key=value pairs where key here is actually
the field name. Use report/prefixes configuration setting (or --nameprefixes command line option) to
switch between standard output and the key=value output. The key=value pair is the output that is suit‐
able for use in scripts and for other tools to parse easily. Usually, you also don't want to display
headings with the output that has these key=value pairs.
# lvs --noheadings --nameprefixes
LVM2_LV_NAME='lvol1' LVM2_LV_SIZE='4.00m' LVM2_COPY_PERCENT='100.00'
LVM2_LV_NAME='lvol0' LVM2_LV_SIZE='4.00m' LVM2_COPY_PERCENT=''
To define whether quotation marks in key=value pairs should be used or not, use report/quoted configura‐
tion setting (or --unquoted command line option).
# lvs --noheadings --nameprefixes --unquoted
LVM2_LV_NAME=lvol1 LVM2_LV_SIZE=4.00m LVM2_COPY_PERCENT=100.00
LVM2_LV_NAME=lvol0 LVM2_LV_SIZE=4.00m LVM2_COPY_PERCENT=
For easier parsing, you can even transpose the report so each column now becomes a row in the output.
This is done with report/output_as_rows configuration setting (or --rows command line option).
# lvs --noheadings --nameprefixes --unquoted --rows
LVM2_LV_NAME=lvol1 LVM2_LV_NAME=lvol0
LVM2_LV_SIZE=4.00m LVM2_LV_SIZE=4.00m
LVM2_COPY_PERCENT=100.00 LVM2_COPY_PERCENT=
Use report/separator configuration setting (or --separator command line option) to define your own field
separator to use.
# lvs --noheadings --nameprefixes --unquoted --separator " | "
LVM2_LV_NAME=lvol1 | LVM2_LV_SIZE=4.00m | LVM2_COPY_PERCENT=100.00
LVM2_LV_NAME=lvol0 | LVM2_LV_SIZE=4.00m | LVM2_COPY_PERCENT=
If you are using your own separator, the columns in the output are not aligned by default. Use re‐
port/aligned configuration setting (or --aligned command line option) for LVM to add extra spaces in re‐
port to align the output properly.
# lvs --separator " | "
LV | LSize | Cpy%Sync
lvol1 | 4.00m | 100.00
lvol0 | 4.00m |
# lvs --separator " | " --aligned
LV | LSize | Cpy%Sync
lvol1 | 4.00m | 100.00
lvol0 | 4.00m |
Let's display one one more field in addition ("lv_tags" in this example) for the lvs report output.
# lvs -o+lv_tags
LV LSize Cpy%Sync LV Tags
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m tagA,tagB
The "LV Tags" column in the example above displays two list values, separated by "," character for LV
lvol0. If you need different list item separator, use report/list_item_separator configuration setting
its definition.
# lvmconfig --type full report/list_item_separator
list_item_separator=";"
# lvs -o+tags
LV LSize Cpy%Sync LV Tags
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m tagA;tagB
But let's still use the original "," character for list_item_separator for subsequent examples.
Format for any of time values displayed in reports can be configured with report/time_format configure‐
tion setting. By default complete date and time is displayed, including timezone.
# lvmconfig --type full report/time_format
time_format="%Y-%m-%d %T %z"
# lvs -o+time
LV LSize Cpy%Sync CTime
lvol1 4.00m 100.00 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 4.00m 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
We can change time format in similar way as we do when using date(1) command or strftime(3) function
(lvmconfig --type default --withcomments report/time_format will give you complete list of available for‐
matting options). In the example below, we decided to use %s for number of seconds since Epoch
(1970-01-01 UTC).
# lvmconfig --type full report/time_format
time_format="%s"
# lvs
LV Attr LSize Cpy%Sync LV Tags CTime
lvol1 rwi-a-r--- 4.00m 100.00 1472468016
lvol0 -wi-a----- 4.00m tagA,tagB 1472458517
The lvs does not display hidden LVs by default - to include these LVs in the output, you need to use
-a|--all command line option. Names for these hidden LVs are displayed within square brackets.
# lvs -a
LV LSize Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
[lvol1_rimage_0] 4.00m
[lvol1_rmeta_0] 4.00m
[lvol1_rimage_1] 4.00m
[lvol1_rmeta_1] 4.00m
lvol0 4.00m
You can configure LVM to display the square brackets for hidden LVs or not with report/mark_hidden_de‐
vices configuration setting.
# lvmconfig --type full report/mark_hidden_devices
mark_hidden_devices=0
# lvs -a
LV LSize Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol1_rimage_0 4.00m
lvol1_rmeta_0 4.00m
lvol1_rimage_1 4.00m
lvol1_rmeta_1 4.00m
lvol0 4.00m
It's not recommended to use LV marks for hidden devices to decide whether the LV is the one to use by end
users or not. Please, use "lv_role" field instead which can report whether the LV is "public" or "pri‐
vate". The private LVs are used by LVM only and they should not be accessed directly by end users.
# lvs -a -o+lv_role
LV LSize Cpy%Sync Role
lvol1 4.00m 100.00 public
lvol1_rimage_0 4.00m private,raid,image
lvol1_rmeta_0 4.00m private,raid,metadata
lvol1_rimage_1 4.00m private,raid,image
lvol1_rmeta_1 4.00m private,raid,metadata
lvol0 4.00m public
Some of the reporting fields that LVM reports are of binary nature. For such fields, it's either possi‐
ble to display word representation of the value (this is used by default) or numeric value (0/1 or -1 in
case the value is undefined).
# lvs -o+lv_active_locally
LV LSize Cpy%Sync ActLocal
lvol1 4.00m 100.00 active locally
lvol0 4.00m active locally
We can change the way how these binary values are displayed with report/binary_values_as_numeric configu‐
ration setting.
# lvmconfig --type full report/binary_values_as_numeric
binary_values_as_numeric=1
# lvs -o+lv_active_locally
LV LSize Cpy%Sync ActLocal
lvol1 4.00m 100.00 1
lvol0 4.00m 1
Changing output format
LVM can output reports in different formats - use report/output_format configuration setting (or --re‐
portformat command line option) to swith the report output format. Currently, LVM supports "basic" (all
the examples we used above used this format) and "JSON" output format.
# lvs -o lv_name,lv_size --reportformat json
{
"report": [
{
"lv": [
{"lv_name":"lvol1", "lv_size":"4.00m"},
{"lv_name":"lvol0", "lv_size":"4.00m"}
]
}
]
}
Note that some configuration settings and command line options have no effect with certain report for‐
mats. For example, with JSON output, it doesn't have any meaning to use report/aligned (--aligned), re‐
port/noheadings (--noheadings), report/columns_as_rows (--rows) or report/buffered (--unbuffered). All
these configuration settings and command line options are ignored if using the JSON report output format.
Selection
If you need to select only specific rows from report, you can use LVM's report selection feature. If you
call lvm -S help, you'll get quick help on selection. The help contains list of all fields that LVM can
use in reports together with its type enclosed in square brackets. The example below contains a line
from lvs -S help.
# lvs -S help
...
lv_size - Size of LV in current units. [size]
...
This line tells you you that the "lv_size" field is of "size" type. If you look at the bottom of the help
output, you can see section about "Selection operators" and its "Comparison operators".
# lvs -S help
...
Selection operators
-------------------
Comparison operators:
=~ - Matching regular expression. [regex]
!~ - Not matching regular expression. [regex]
= - Equal to. [number, size, percent, string, string list, time]
!= - Not equal to. [number, size, percent, string, string_list, time]
>= - Greater than or equal to. [number, size, percent, time]
> - Greater than. [number, size, percent, time]
<= - Less than or equal to. [number, size, percent, time]
< - Less than. [number, size, percent, time]
since - Since specified time (same as '>='). [time]
after - After specified time (same as '>'). [time]
until - Until specified time (same as '<='). [time]
before - Before specified time (same as '<'). [time]
...
Here you can match comparison operators that you may use with the "lv_size" field which is of type "size"
- it's =, !=, >=, >, <= and <. You can find applicable comparison operators for other fields and other
field types the same way.
To demonstrate selection functionality in LVM, we will create more LVs in addition to lvol0 and lvol1 we
used in our previous examples.
# lvs -o name,size,origin,snap_percent,tags,time
LV LSize Origin Snap% LV Tags CTime
lvol4 4.00m lvol2 24.61 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 4.00m lvol2 5.08 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
lvol2 8.00m tagA,tagC,tagD 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
lvol1 4.00m 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 4.00m tagA,tagB 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
When selecting size and percent fields, we don't need to use units. For sizes, default "m" (for MiB) is
used - this is the same behaviour as already used for LVM commands when specifying sizes (e.g. lvcreate
-L). For percent fields, "%" is assumed automatically if it's not specified. The example below also
demonstrates how several criteria can be combined together.
# lvs -o name,size,snap_percent -S 'size=8m'
LV LSize
lvol2 8.00m
# lvs -o name,size,snap_percent -S 'size=8'
LV LSize
lvol2 8.00m
# lvs -o name,size,snap_percent -S 'size < 5000k'
LV LSize Snap%
lvol4 4.00m 24.61
lvol3 4.00m 5.08
lvol1 4.00m
lvol0 4.00m
# lvs -o name,size,snap_percent -S 'size < 5000k && snap_percent > 20'
LV LSize Snap%
lvol4 4.00m 24.61
# lvs -o name,size,snap_percent \
-S '(size < 5000k && snap_percent > 20%) || name=lvol2'
LV LSize Snap%
lvol4 4.00m 24.61
lvol2 8.00m
You can also use selection together with processing-oriented commands.
# lvchange --addtag test -S 'size < 5000k'
Logical volume vg/lvol1 changed.
Logical volume vg/lvol0 changed.
Logical volume vg/lvol3 changed.
Logical volume vg/lvol4 changed.
# lvchange --deltag test -S 'tags = test'
Logical volume vg/lvol1 changed.
Logical volume vg/lvol0 changed.
Logical volume vg/lvol3 changed.
Logical volume vg/lvol4 changed.
LVM can recognize more complex values used in selection criteria for string list and time field types.
For string lists, you can match whole list strictly, its subset or intersection. Let's take "lv_tags"
field as an example - we select only rows which contain "tagA" within tags field. We're using { } to de‐
note that we're interested in subset that matches. If the subset has only one item, we can leave out { }.
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags={tagA}'
LV LV Tags
lvol2 tagA,tagC,tagD
lvol0 tagA,tagB
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags=tagA'
LV LV Tags
lvol2 tagA,tagC,tagD
lvol0 tagA,tagB
Depending on whether we use "&&" (or ",") or "||" ( or "#") as delimiter for items in the set we define
in selection criterion for string list, we either match subset ("&&" or ",") or even intersection ("||"
or "#").
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags={tagA,tagC,tagD}'
LV LV Tags
lvol2 tagA,tagC,tagD
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags={tagA || tagC || tagD}'
LV LV Tags
lvol2 tagA,tagC,tagD
lvol0 tagA,tagB
To match the complete set, use [ ] with "&&" (or ",") as delimiter for items. Also note that the order
in which we define items in the set is not relevant.
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags=[tagA]'
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags=[tagB,tagA]'
LV LV Tags
lvol0 tagA,tagB
If you use [ ] with "||" (or "#"), this is exactly the same as using { }.
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags=[tagA || tagC || tagD]'
LV LV Tags
lvol2 tagA,tagC,tagD
lvol0 tagA,tagB
To match a set with no items, use "" to denote this (note that we have output compaction enabled so the
"LV Tags" column is not displayed in the example below because it's blank and so it gets compacted).
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags=""'
LV
lvol4
lvol3
lvol1
# lvs -o name,tags -S 'tags!=""'
LV LV Tags
lvol2 tagA,tagC,tagD
lvol0 tagA,tagB
When doing selection based on time fields, we can use either standard, absolute or freeform time expres‐
sions in selection criteria. Examples below are using standard forms.
# lvs -o name,time
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "2016-09-01"'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "2016-09-09 16:56"'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "2016-09-09 16:57:30"'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
# lvs -o name,time \
-S 'time since "2016-08-29" && time until "2016-09-09 16:55:12"'
LV CTime
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
# lvs -o name,time \
-S 'time since "2016-08-29" && time before "2016-09-09 16:55:12"'
LV CTime
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
Time operators have synonyms: ">=" for since, "<=" for until, ">" for "after" and "<" for "before".
# lvs -o name,time \
-S 'time >= "2016-08-29" && time <= "2016-09-09 16:55:30"'
LV CTime
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
# lvs -o name,time \
-S 'time since "2016-08-29" && time < "2016-09-09 16:55:12"'
LV CTime
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
Example below demonstrates using absolute time expression.
# lvs -o name,time --config report/time_format="%s"
LV CTime
lvol4 1473433064
lvol3 1473433008
lvol2 1473432912
lvol1 1472468016
lvol0 1472458517
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since @1473433008'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
Examples below demonstrates using freeform time expressions.
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "2 weeks ago"'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "1 week ago"'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "2 weeks ago"'
LV CTime
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time before "1 week ago"'
LV CTime
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "68 hours ago"'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
# lvs -o name,time -S 'time since "1 year 3 months ago"'
LV CTime
lvol4 2016-09-09 16:57:44 +0200
lvol3 2016-09-09 16:56:48 +0200
lvol2 2016-09-09 16:55:12 +0200
lvol1 2016-08-29 12:53:36 +0200
lvol0 2016-08-29 10:15:17 +0200
Command log reporting
As described in categorization based on reporting facility section at the beginning of this document,
both report-oriented and processing-oriented LVM commands can report the command log if this is enabled
with log/report_command_log configuration setting. Just like any other report, we can set the set of
fields to display (log/command_log_cols) and to sort by (log/command_log_sort) for this report.
# lvmconfig --type full log/report_command_log log/command_log_cols \
log/command_log_sort log/command_log_selection
report_command_log=1
command_log_cols="log_seq_num,log_type,log_context,log_object_type,
log_object_name,log_object_group,log_message,
log_errno,log_ret_code"
command_log_sort="log_seq_num"
command_log_selection="!(log_type=status && message=success)"
# lvs
Logical Volume
==============
LV LSize Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
As you can see, the command log is empty (it contains only field names). By default, LVM uses selection
on the command log report and this case no row matched the selection criteria, see also log report
specifics section in this document for more information. We're displaying complete log report in the ex‐
ample below where we can see that both LVs lvol0 and lvol1 were successfully processed as well as the VG
vg they are part of.
# lvmconfig --type full log/command_log_selection
command_log_selection="all"
# lvs
Logical Volume
==============
LV LSize Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
1 status processing lv lvol0 vg success 0 1
2 status processing lv lvol1 vg success 0 1
3 status processing vg vg success 0 1
# lvchange -an vg/lvol1
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
1 status processing lv lvol1 vg success 0 1
2 status processing vg vg success 0 1
Handling multiple reports per single command
To configure the log report directly on command line, we need to use --configreport option before we
start any -o|--options, -O|--sort or -S|--select that is targeted for log report.
# lvs -o lv_name,lv_size --configreport log -o log_object_type, \
log_object_name,log_message,log_ret_code
Logical Volume
==============
LV LSize
lvol1 4.00m
lvol0 4.00m
Command Log
===========
ObjType ObjName Msg RetCode
lv lvol0 success 1
lv lvol1 success 1
vg vg success 1
The lvm fullreport, with or without log report, consists of several reports - the --configreport is also
used to target particular subreport here.
Below is an extended example with lvm fullreport to illustrate combination of various options. The report
output is in JSON format. Also, we configure "vg", "pvseg", "seg" and "log" subreport to contain only
specified fields. For the "pvseg" subreport, we're interested only in PV names having "sda" in their
name. For the "log" subreport we're interested only in log lines related to either "lvol0" object or ob‐
ject having "sda" in its name. Also, for the log subreport we define ordering to be based on "log_ob‐
ject_type" field.
# lvm fullreport --reportformat json \
--configreport vg -o vg_name,vg_size \
--configreport pvseg -o pv_name,pvseg_start \
-S 'pv_name=~sda' \
--configreport seg -o lv_name,seg_start \
--configreport log -o log_object_type,log_object_name \
-O log_object_type \
-S 'log_object_name=lvol0 || \
log_object_name=~sda'
{
"report": [
{
"vg": [
{"vg_name":"vg", "vg_size":"200.00m"}
]
,
"pv": [
{"pv_name":"/dev/sda", "vg_name":"vg"},
{"pv_name":"/dev/sdb", "vg_name":"vg"}
]
,
"lv": [
{"lv_name":"lvol0", "vg_name":"vg"},
{"lv_name":"lvol1", "vg_name":"vg"}
]
,
"pvseg": [
{"pv_name":"/dev/sda", "pvseg_start":"0"},
{"pv_name":"/dev/sda", "pvseg_start":"1"},
{"pv_name":"/dev/sda", "pvseg_start":"2"},
{"pv_name":"/dev/sda", "pvseg_start":"3"}
]
,
"seg": [
{"lv_name":"lvol0", "seg_start":"0 "},
{"lv_name":"lvol1", "seg_start":"0 "}
]
}
]
,
"log": [
{"log_object_type":"lv", "log_object_name":"lvol0"},
{"log_object_type":"lv", "log_object_name":"lvol0"},
{"log_object_type":"pv", "log_object_name":"/dev/sda"},
{"log_object_type":"pv", "log_object_name":"/dev/sda"},
]
}
Report extensions for LVM shell
As already stated in log report coverage paragraph under log report specifics in this documentation, when
using LVM shell the log report coverage is wider. There's also special command designed to query last
command's log report in the LVM shell - the lastlog command.
The example below illustrates a situation where we called lvs command. After that, we inspected the log
report with the lastlog, without any selection so all the log report is displayed on output. Then we
called lastlog further, giving various selection criteria. Then we ran unknown LVM command "abc" for
which the log report displays appropriate failure state.
# lvm
lvm> lvs
Logical Volume
==============
LV LSize Cpy%Sync
lvol1 4.00m 100.00
lvol0 4.00m
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
1 status processing lv lvol0 vg success 0 1
2 status processing lv lvol1 vg success 0 1
3 status processing vg vg success 0 1
4 status shell cmd lvs success 0 1
lvm> lastlog
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
1 status processing lv lvol0 vg success 0 1
2 status processing lv lvol1 vg success 0 1
3 status processing vg vg success 0 1
4 status shell cmd lvs success 0 1
lvm> lastlog -S log_object_type=lv
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
1 status processing lv lvol0 vg success 0 1
2 status processing lv lvol1 vg success 0 1
lvm> lastlog -S log_context=shell
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
4 status shell cmd lvs success 0 1
lvm> abc
Command Log
===========
Seq LogType Context ObjType ObjName ObjGrp Msg Errno RetCode
1 error shell cmd abc No such command 'abc'. Try 'help'. -1 0
2 status shell cmd abc failure -1 2
SEE ALSO
lvm(8), lvmconfig(8), lvm fullreport(8), lvcreate(8),
lvs(8), pvs(8), vgs(8),
date(1), strftime(3)
Red Hat, Inc LVM TOOLS 2.03.16(2) (2022-05-18) LVMREPORT(7)