LSBLK(8) System Administration LSBLK(8)
NAME
lsblk - list block devices
SYNOPSISlsblk [options] [device...]
DESCRIPTIONlsblk lists information about all available or the specified block
devices. The lsblk command reads the sysfs filesystem and udev db to
gather information. If the udev db is not available or lsblk is compiled
without udev support, then it tries to read LABELs, UUIDs and filesystem
types from the block device. In this case root permissions are necessary.
By default, the command prints all block devices (except RAM disks) in a
tree-like format. The same device can be repeated in the tree if it
relates to other devices. The --merge option is recommended for more
complicated setups to gather groups of devices and describe complex N:M
relationships.
The tree-like output (or children[] array in the JSON output) is enabled
only if NAME column it present in the output or when --tree command line
option is used. See also --nodeps and --list to control the tree
formatting.
The default output, as well as the default output from options like --fs
and --topology, is subject to change. So whenever possible, you should
avoid using default outputs in your scripts. Always explicitly define
expected columns by using --output columns-list and --list in
environments where a stable output is required.
Use lsblk --list-columns to get a list of all available columns.
Note that lsblk might be executed in time when udev does not have all
information about recently added or modified devices yet. In this case it
is recommended to use udevadm settle before lsblk to synchronize with
udev.
The relationship between block devices and filesystems is not always
one-to-one. The filesystem may use more block devices, or the same
filesystem may be accessible by more paths. This is the reason why lsblk
provides MOUNTPOINT and MOUNTPOINTS (pl.) columns. The column MOUNTPOINT
displays only one mount point (usually the last mounted instance of the
filesystem), and the column MOUNTPOINTS displays by multi-line cell all
mount points associated with the device.
OPTIONS-A, --noempty
Don’t print empty devices.
-a, --all
Disable all built-in filters and list all empty devices and RAM disk
devices too.
-b, --bytes
Print sizes in bytes rather than in human-readable form.
By default, sizes are shown in units that are powers of 1024 bytes.
The formal abbreviations for these units (KiB, MiB, GiB, ...) are
further shortened to just their first letter: K, M, G, ....
-H, --list-columns
List the columns that can be specified with the --output option. Can
be used with --json or --raw to get the list in a machine-readable
format.
-D, --discard
Print information about the discarding capabilities (TRIM, UNMAP) for
each device.
-d, --nodeps
Do not print holder devices or slaves. For example, lsblk --nodeps/dev/sda prints information about the sda device only.
-E, --dedup column
Use column as a de-duplication key to de-duplicate output tree. If
the key is not available for the device, or the device is a partition
and parental whole-disk device provides the same key than the device
is always printed.
The usual use case is to de-duplicate output on system multi-path
devices, for example by -E WWN.
-e, --exclude list
Exclude the devices specified by the comma-separated list of major
device numbers. Note that RAM disks (major=1) are excluded by default
if --all is not specified. The filter is applied to the top-level
devices only. This may be confusing for --list output format where
hierarchy of the devices is not obvious.
-f, --fs
Output info about filesystems. This option is equivalent to -oNAME,FSTYPE,FSVER,LABEL,UUID,FSAVAIL,FSUSE%,MOUNTPOINTS. The
authoritative information about filesystems and raids is provided by
the blkid(8) command.
--hyperlink[=when]
Print paths as terminal hyperlinks. The optional when argument can be
always, never, or auto. If the argument is omitted, it defaults to
auto, which means that hyperlinks will only be used when the output
goes to a terminal.
-I, --include list
Include devices specified by the comma-separated list of major device
numbers. The filter is applied to the top-level devices only. This
may be confusing for --list output format where hierarchy of the
devices is not obvious.
-i, --ascii
Use ASCII characters for tree formatting.
-J, --json
Use JSON output format. It’s strongly recommended to use --output and
also --tree if necessary. Note that children[] is used only if NAME
column or --tree is used.
-l, --list
Produce output in the form of a list. The output does not provide
information about relationships between devices and since version
2.34 every device is printed only once if --pairs or --raw not
specified (the parsable outputs are maintained in backwardly
compatible way).
-M, --merge
Group parents of sub-trees to provide more readable output for RAIDs
and Multi-path devices. The tree-like output is required.
-m, --perms
Output info about device owner, group and mode. This option is
equivalent to -o NAME,SIZE,OWNER,GROUP,MODE.
-N, --nvme
Output info about NVMe devices only.
-v, --virtio
Output info about virtio devices only.
-n, --noheadings
Do not print a header line.
-o, --output list
Specify which output columns to print. Use --list-columns to get a
list of all supported columns. The columns may affect tree-like
output. The default is to use tree for the column 'NAME' (see also
--tree).
The default list of columns may be extended if list is specified in
the format +list (e.g., lsblk -o +UUID).
-O, --output-all
Output all available columns.
-P, --pairs
Produce output in the form of key="value" pairs. The output lines are
still ordered by dependencies. All potentially unsafe value
characters are hex-escaped (\x<code>). See also option --shell.
-p, --paths
Print full device paths.
-Q, --filter expression
Print only the devices that meet the conditions specified by
expression. The filter is assessed prior to lsblk collecting data for
all output columns. Only the necessary data for the lazy evaluation
of the expression is retrieved from the system. This approach can
enhance performance when compared to post-filtering, as commonly done
by tools such as grep(1).
This feature is EXPERIMENTAL. See also scols-filter(5).
For example, to exclude sda and sdb, but print everything else ('!˜'
is a negative regular-expression matching operator):
lsblk --filter 'NAME !˜ "sd[ab]"'
--highlight expression
Colorize lines matching expression.
This feature is EXPERIMENTAL. See also scols-filter(5).
--ct name[:parameter[:function]]
Define a custom counter. Custom counters are printed after the
standard output. The name is the custom name of the counter, the
optional parameter is the name of the column to be used for the
counter, and the optional function specifies the aggregation
function. Supported functions are: count, min, max, sum. The default
function is count. If parameter is not specified, then the counter
counts the number of lines.
This feature is EXPERIMENTAL. See also --ct-filter.
For example, --ct MyCounter:SIZE:sum reports the total of the SIZE
values. To report the number of SATA disks, one can use:
lsblk --ct-filter 'TYPE=="disk" && TRAN=="sata"' \
--ct "Number of SATA devices"
--ct-filter expression
Define a restriction for the next counter.
This feature is EXPERIMENTAL. See also --ct and scols-filter(5).
For example, to aggregate sizes by device type:
lsblk --ct-filter 'TYPE=="part"' --ct Partitions:SIZE:sum \
--ct-filter 'TYPE=="disk"' --ct WholeDisks:SIZE:sum
-r, --raw
Produce output in raw format. The output lines are still ordered by
dependencies. All potentially unsafe characters are hex-escaped
(\x<code>) in the NAME, KNAME, LABEL, PARTLABEL and MOUNTPOINT
columns.
-S, --scsi
Output info about SCSI devices only. All partitions, slaves and
holder devices are ignored.
-s, --inverse
Print dependencies in inverse order. If the --list output is
requested then the lines are still ordered by dependencies.
-T, --tree[=column]
Force tree-like output format. If column is specified, then a tree is
printed in the column. The default is NAME column.
-t, --topology
Output info about block-device topology. This option is equivalent to
-oNAME,ALIGNMENT,MIN-IO,OPT-IO,PHY-SEC,LOG-SEC,ROTA,SCHED,RQ-SIZE,RA,WSAME.
-w, --width number
Specifies output width as a number of characters. The default is the
number of the terminal columns, and if not executed on a terminal,
then output width is not restricted at all by default. This option
also forces lsblk to assume that terminal control characters and
unsafe characters are not allowed. The expected use-case is for
example when lsblk is used by the watch(1) command.
-x, --sort column
Sort output lines by column. This option enables --list output format
by default. It is possible to use the option --tree to force
tree-like output and than the tree branches are sorted by the column.
-y, --shell
The column name will be modified to contain only characters allowed
for shell variable identifiers, for example, MIN_IO and FSUSE_PCT
instead of MIN-IO and FSUSE%. This is usable, for example, with
--pairs. Note that this feature has been automatically enabled for
--pairs in version 2.37, but due to compatibility issues, now it’s
necessary to request this behavior by --shell.
-z, --zoned
Print the zone related information for each device.
--sysroot directory
Gather data for a Linux instance other than the instance from which
the lsblk command is issued. The specified directory is the system
root of the Linux instance to be inspected. The real device nodes in
the target directory can be replaced by text files with udev
attributes.
--properties-by list
This option specifies the methods used by lsblk to gather information
about filesystems and partition tables. The list is a comma-separated
list of method names. The default setting is "file,udev,blkid". The
supported methods are:
udev
Reads data from udev DB. If unsuccessful, it continues to the
next probing method.
blkid
Reads data directly from the device using libblkid. If
unsuccessful, it continues to the next probing method.
file
Reads data from a file. This method is only used if the --sysroot
option is specified. This method always stops probing if used.
none
Does not probe. This method always stops probing.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
Display version and exit.
EXIT STATUS
0
success
1
failure
32
none of specified devices found
64
some specified devices found, some not found
COLORS
The output colorization is implemented by terminal-colors.d(5)
functionality. Implicit coloring can be disabled by an empty file
/etc/terminal-colors.d/lsblk.disable
for the lsblk command or for all tools by
/etc/terminal-colors.d/disable
Since version 2.41, the $NO_COLOR environment variable is also supported
to disable output colorization unless explicitly enabled by a
command-line option.
The user-specific $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/terminal-colors.d or
$HOME/.config/terminal-colors.d overrides the global setting.
Note that the output colorization may be enabled by default, and in this
case terminal-colors.d directories do not have to exist yet.
ENVIRONMENTLSBLK_DEBUG=all
enables lsblk debug output.
LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
enables libblkid debug output.
LIBMOUNT_DEBUG=all
enables libmount debug output.
LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all
enables libsmartcols debug output.
LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG_PADDING=on
use visible padding characters.
LIBSMARTCOLS_JSON=compact|lines
Controls JSON output format when using --json. Supported values are
compact for JSON output with minimal whitespace, and lines for JSON
Lines format (one JSON object per line). If unset or set to any other
value, pretty-printed JSON is used.
LSBLK_COLUMNS=
specifies a comma-separated list of output columns to print. All
columns listed by --list-columns can be used.
NOTES
For partitions, some information (e.g., queue attributes) is inherited
from the parent device.
The lsblk command needs to be able to look up each block device by
major:minor numbers, which is done by using /sys/dev/block. This sysfs
block directory appeared in kernel 2.6.27 (October 2008). In case of
problems with a new enough kernel, check that CONFIG_SYSFS was enabled at
the time of the kernel build.
AUTHORS
Milan Broz <gmazyland@gmail.com>, Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
SEE ALSOblkid(8), findmnt(8)ls(1), scols-filter(5)REPORTING BUGS
For bug reports, use the issue tracker
<https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.
AVAILABILITY
The lsblk command is part of the util-linux package which can be
downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
<https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
util-linux 2.42.2 2026-06-16 LSBLK(8)