55.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
66.\"
77.\" Based on uuidgen, Mon Sep 17 10:42:12 2000, Andreas Dilger
8- .TH BLKID 8 "February 2009 " "Linux" "MAINTENANCE COMMANDS"
8+ .TH BLKID 8 "February 2011 " "Linux" "MAINTENANCE COMMANDS"
99.SH NAME
10- blkid \- command \- line utility to locate/print block device attributes
10+ blkid \- locate/print block device attributes
1111.SH SYNOPSIS
1212.B blkid
1313.RB \- L
@@ -46,8 +46,7 @@ blkid \- command\-line utility to locate/print block device attributes
4646.IR list ]
4747.RB [ \- u
4848.IR list ]
49- .I device
50- [\fI device \fR ...]
49+ .IR device " ... "
5150.in -9
5251
5352.B blkid
@@ -56,22 +55,21 @@ blkid \- command\-line utility to locate/print block device attributes
5655.IR format ]
5756.RB [ \- s
5857.IR tag ]
59- .I device
60- [\fI device \fR ...]
58+ .IR device " ... "
6159
6260.SH DESCRIPTION
6361The
6462.B blkid
65- program is the command-line interface to working with
63+ program is the command-line interface to working with the
6664.BR libblkid (3)
67- library. It can determine the type of content (e.g. filesystem, swap)
68- a block device holds, and also attributes (tokens, NAME=value pairs)
65+ library. It can determine the type of content (e.g. filesystem or swap)
66+ that a block device holds, and also attributes (tokens, NAME=value pairs)
6967from the content metadata (e.g. LABEL or UUID fields).
7068.PP
7169.B blkid
7270has two main forms of operation: either searching for a device with a
7371specific NAME=value pair, or displaying NAME=value pairs for one or
74- more devices.
72+ more specified devices.
7573.SH OPTIONS
7674The \fI size \fR and \fI offset \fR arguments may be followed by binary (2^N)
7775suffixes KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB and EiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the
@@ -94,12 +92,11 @@ devices which no longer exist.
9492Display a usage message and exit.
9593.TP
9694.B \- i
97- Display I/O Limits (aka I/O topology) information. The 'export' output format is
98- automatically enabled. This option could be used together with \fB -p \fR option.
95+ Display I/O Limits (aka I/O topology) information. The 'export' output format is
96+ automatically enabled. This option can be used together with the \fB -p \fR option.
9997.TP
10098.B \- l
101- Look up one device that matches the search parameter specified using
102- the
99+ Look up only one device that matches the search parameter specified with the
103100.B \- t
104101option. If there are multiple devices that match the specified search
105102parameter, then the device with the highest priority is returned, and/or
@@ -109,33 +106,33 @@ block devices. If this option is not specified,
109106.B blkid
110107will print all of the devices that match the search parameter.
111108.TP
112- .B \- L " label "
113- Look up one device that uses the label (same as : -l -o device -t
114- LABEL=<label>). This look up method is able to reliable use /dev/disk/by-label
115- udev symlinks (depends on setting in /etc/blkid.conf). Avoid to use the
116- symlinks directly. It is not reliable to use the symlinks without verification.
109+ .BI \- L " label"
110+ Look up the device that uses this \fI label \fR (equal to : -l -o device -t
111+ LABEL=<label>). This lookup method is able to reliably use /dev/disk/by-label
112+ udev symlinks (dependent on a setting in /etc/blkid.conf). Avoid using the
113+ symlinks directly; it is not reliable to use the symlinks without verification.
117114The \fB -L \fR option works on systems with and without udev.
118115
119116Unfortunately, the original
120117.B blkid(8)
121118from e2fsprogs use the \fB -L \fR option as a
122- synonym to the \fB -o list \fR option. For better portability use " -l -o device
123- -t LABEL=<label>" and " -o list" in your scripts rather than -L option.
119+ synonym for the \fB -o list \fR option. For better portability, use \fB -l -o device
120+ -t LABEL=<label> \fR and \fB -o list \fR in your scripts rather than the \fB -L \fR option.
124121.TP
125- .B \- n " list "
126- Restrict probing functions to defined (comma separated) list of superblock types (names).
127- The list can be prefixed with "no" to specify the types which should be ignored.
122+ .BI \- n " list "
123+ Restrict the probing functions to the specified (comma-separated) \fI list \fR of
124+ superblock types (names).
125+ The list items may be prefixed with "no" to specify the types which should be ignored.
128126For example:
129127.sp
130128 blkid -p -n vfat,ext3,ext4 /dev/sda1
131129.sp
132130probes for vfat, ext3 and ext4 filesystems, and
133131.sp
134- blkid -p -u nominix /dev/sda1
132+ blkid -p -n nominix /dev/sda1
135133.sp
136- probes for all supported formats exclude minix filesystem. This option is
137- useful with
138- \fB -p \fR only.
134+ probes for all supported formats except minix filesystems.
135+ This option is only useful together with \fB -p \fR .
139136.TP
140137.BI \- o " format"
141138Display
@@ -152,29 +149,29 @@ print all tags (the default)
152149print the value of the tags
153150.TP
154151.B list
155- print the devices in a user-friendly format, this output format is unsupported
152+ print the devices in a user-friendly format; this output format is unsupported
156153for low-level probing (\fB -p \fR or \fB -i \fR )
157154.TP
158155.B device
159- print the device name only, this output format is always enabled for \fB -L \fR
156+ print the device name only; this output format is always enabled for \fB -L \fR
160157and \fB -U \fR options
161158.TP
162159.B udev
163- print key="value" pairs for easy import into the udev environment. The keys are
164- prefixed by ID_FS_ or ID_PART_ prefixes.
160+ print key="value" pairs for easy import into the udev environment; the keys are
161+ prefixed by ID_FS_ or ID_PART_ prefixes
165162
166- The udev output returns ID_FS_AMBIVALENT tag if more superblocks are detected,
163+ The udev output returns the ID_FS_AMBIVALENT tag if more superblocks are detected,
167164and ID_PART_ENTRY_* tags are always returned for all partitions including empty
168165partitions.
169166.TP
170167.B export
171- print key=value pairs for easy import into the environment. This output format
172- is automatically enabled when I/O Limits (\fB -i \fR option) are requested.
168+ print key=value pairs for easy import into the environment; this output format
169+ is automatically enabled when I/O Limits (\fB -i \fR option) are requested
173170.RE
174171.TP
175172.BI \- O " offset"
176- Probe at the given offset (only useful with \fB -p \fR ). This option could be
177- used together with \fB -i \fR option.
173+ Probe at the given \fI offset \fR (only useful with \fB -p \fR ). This option can be
174+ used together with the \fB -i \fR option.
178175.TP
179176.BI \- p
180177Switch to low-level superblock probing mode (bypass cache).
@@ -212,22 +209,22 @@ and
212209If there are no devices specified on the command line, all block devices
213210will be searched; otherwise only the specified devices are searched.
214211.TP
215- .B \- u " list "
216- Restrict probing functions to defined (comma separated) list of "usage" types.
217- Supported usage types are: filesystem, raid, crypto and other. The list can be
218- prefixed with "no" to specify the usage types which should be ignored. For example:
212+ .BI \- u " list "
213+ Restrict the probing functions to the specified (comma- separated) \fI list \fR of "usage" types.
214+ Supported usage types are: filesystem, raid, crypto and other. The list items may be
215+ prefixed with "no" to specify the usage types which should be ignored. For example:
219216.sp
220217 blkid -p -u filesystem,other /dev/sda1
221218.sp
222- probes for all filesystems and others (e.g. swap) formats, and
219+ probes for all filesystem and other (e.g. swap) formats, and
223220.sp
224221 blkid -p -u noraid /dev/sda1
225222.sp
226- probes for all supported formats exclude RAIDs. This option is useful with
227- \fB -p \fR only .
223+ probes for all supported formats except RAIDs.
224+ This option is only useful together with \fB -p \fR .
228225.TP
229- .B \- U " uuid "
230- Look up one device that uses the uuid. For more details see the \fB -L \fR option.
226+ .BI \- U " uuid "
227+ Look up the device that uses this \fI uuid \fR . For more details see the \fB -L \fR option.
231228.TP
232229.B \- v
233230Display version number and exit.
@@ -237,9 +234,9 @@ Write the device cache to
237234.I writecachefile
238235instead of writing it to the default cache file
239236.IR /etc/blkid.tab .
240- If you don't want to save the cache to the default file , specify
237+ If you don't want to save the cache at all , specify
241238.IR /dev/null.
242- If not specified it will be the same file as that given by the
239+ If not specified, it will be the same file as that given with the
243240.B \- c
244241option.
245242.TP
@@ -256,11 +253,11 @@ If the specified token was found, or if any tags were shown from (specified)
256253devices, 0 is returned.
257254
258255If the specified token was not found, or no (specified) devices could be
259- identified an exit code of 2 is returned.
256+ identified, an exit code of 2 is returned.
260257
261258For usage or other errors, an exit code of 4 is returned.
262259
263- If the ambivalent low-level probing result was detected an exit code of 8 is
260+ If the ambivalent low-level probing result was detected, an exit code of 8 is
264261returned.
265262.SH AUTHOR
266263.B blkid
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