lvm man page on DragonFly

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LVM(8)									LVM(8)

NAME
       lvm - LVM2 tools

SYNOPSIS
       lvm [command | file]

DESCRIPTION
       lvm  provides  the command-line tools for LVM2.	A separate manual page
       describes each command in detail.

       If lvm is invoked with no  arguments  it	 presents  a  readline	prompt
       (assuming  it was compiled with readline support).  LVM commands may be
       entered interactively at this prompt with readline facilities including
       history	and  command name and option completion.  Refer to readline(3)
       for details.

       If lvm is invoked with argv[0] set to the name of a specific  LVM  com‐
       mand  (for  example  by using a hard or soft link) it acts as that com‐
       mand.

       Where commands take VG or LV names as arguments, the full path name  is
       optional.   An  LV called "lvol0" in a VG called "vg0" can be specified
       as "vg0/lvol0".	Where a list of VGs is required but is left  empty,  a
       list  of	 all VGs will be substituted.  Where a list of LVs is required
       but a VG is given, a list of all the LVs in that	 VG  will  be  substi‐
       tuted.  So "lvdisplay vg0" will display all the LVs in "vg0".  Tags can
       also be used - see addtag below.

       One advantage of using the built-in shell is that configuration	infor‐
       mation gets cached internally between commands.

       A file containing a simple script with one command per line can also be
       given on the command line.  The script can also be executed directly if
       the first line is #! followed by the absolute path of lvm.

BUILT-IN COMMANDS
       The  following commands are built into lvm without links normally being
       created in the filesystem for them.

       dumpconfig — Display the configuration information after
	      loading lvm.conf (5) and any other configuration files.

       formats — Display recognised metadata formats.

       help — Display the help text.

       pvdata — Not implemented in LVM2.

       segtypes — Display recognised logical volume segment types.

       version — Display version information.

COMMANDS
       The following commands implement the core LVM functionality.

       pvchange — Change attributes of a physical volume.

       pvck — Check physical volume metadata.

       pvcreate — Initialize a disk or partition for use by LVM.

       pvdisplay — Display attributes of a physical volume.

       pvmove — Move physical extents.

       pvremove — Remove a physical volume.

       pvresize — Resize a disk or partition in use by LVM2.

       pvs — Report information about physical volumes.

       pvscan — Scan all disks for physical volumes.

       vgcfgbackup — Backup volume group descriptor area.

       vgcfgrestore — Restore volume group descriptor area.

       vgchange — Change attributes of a volume group.

       vgck — Check volume group metadata.

       vgconvert — Convert volume group metadata format.

       vgcreate — Create a volume group.

       vgdisplay — Display attributes of volume groups.

       vgexport — Make volume groups unknown to the system.

       vgextend — Add physical volumes to a volume group.

       vgimport — Make exported volume groups known to the system.

       vgmerge — Merge two volume groups.

       vgmknodes — Recreate volume group directory and logical volume  special
       files

       vgreduce	 — Reduce a volume group by removing one or more physical vol‐
       umes.

       vgremove — Remove a volume group.

       vgrename — Rename a volume group.

       vgs — Report information about volume groups.

       vgscan — Scan all disks for volume groups and rebuild caches.

       vgsplit — Split a volume group into two,	 moving	 any  logical  volumes
       from one volume group to another by moving entire physical volumes.

       lvchange — Change attributes of a logical volume.

       lvconvert — Convert a logical volume from linear to mirror or snapshot.

       lvcreate — Create a logical volume in an existing volume group.

       lvdisplay — Display attributes of a logical volume.

       lvextend — Extend the size of a logical volume.

       lvmchange — Change attributes of the logical volume manager.

       lvmdiskscan — Scan for all devices visible to LVM2.

       lvmdump — Create lvm2 information dumps for diagnostic purposes.

       lvreduce — Reduce the size of a logical volume.

       lvremove — Remove a logical volume.

       lvrename — Rename a logical volume.

       lvresize — Resize a logical volume.

       lvs — Report information about logical volumes.

       lvscan — Scan (all disks) for logical volumes.

       The  following commands are not implemented in LVM2 but might be in the
       future: lvmsadc, lvmsar, pvdata.

OPTIONS
       The following options are available for many of the commands.  They are
       implemented  generically	 and  documented  here rather than repeated on
       individual manual pages.

       -h | --help — Display the help text.

       --version — Display version information.

       -v | --verbose — Set verbose level.
	      Repeat from 1 to 3 times to increase the detail of messages sent
	      to stdout and stderr.  Overrides config file setting.

       -d | --debug — Set debug level.
	      Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail of messages sent
	      to the log file and/or syslog (if configured).  Overrides config
	      file setting.

       --quiet — Suppress output and log messages.
	      Overrides -d and -v.

       -t | --test — Run in test mode.
	      Commands	will not update metadata.  This is implemented by dis‐
	      abling all metadata writing but nevertheless  returning  success
	      to  the  calling	function.  This may lead to unusual error mes‐
	      sages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies on reading back
	      metadata it believes has changed but hasn't.

       --driverloaded { y | n }
	      Whether  or  not	the device-mapper kernel driver is loaded.  If
	      you set this to n, no  attempt  will  be	made  to  contact  the
	      driver.

       -A | --autobackup { y | n }
	      Whether  or  not	to  metadata should be backed up automatically
	      after a change.  You are strongly advised not to	disable	 this!
	      See vgcfgbackup (8).

       -P | --partial
	      When set, the tools will do their best to provide access to vol‐
	      ume groups that are only partially available.  Where part	 of  a
	      logical volume is missing, /dev/ioerror will be substituted, and
	      you could use dmsetup (8) to set this up to  return  I/O	errors
	      when  accessed,  or  create it as a large block device of nulls.
	      Metadata may not be  changed  with  this	option.	 To  insert  a
	      replacement physical volume of the same or large size use pvcre‐
	      ate -u to set the uuid to match the original followed  by	 vgcf‐
	      grestore (8).

       -M | --metadatatype type
	      Specifies which type of on-disk metadata to use, such as lvm1 or
	      lvm2, which can be abbreviated to	 1  or	2  respectively.   The
	      default  (lvm2)  can  be changed by setting format in the global
	      section of the config file.

       --ignorelockingfailure
	      This lets you proceed with read-only metadata operations such as
	      lvchange	-ay and vgchange -ay even if the locking module fails.
	      One use for this is in a system init script if the  lock	direc‐
	      tory is mounted read-only when the script runs.

       --addtag tag
	      Add  the tag tag to a PV, VG or LV.  A tag is a word that can be
	      used to group LVM2 objects of the same type together.  Tags  can
	      be given on the command line in place of PV, VG or LV arguments.
	      Tags should be prefixed with @ to avoid ambiguity.  Each tag  is
	      expanded	by  replacing  it with all objects possessing that tag
	      which are of the type expected by its position  on  the  command
	      line.  PVs can only possess tags while they are part of a Volume
	      Group: PV tags are discarded if the PV is removed from  the  VG.
	      As  an example, you could tag some LVs as database and others as
	      userdata and then activate the database ones with	 lvchange  -ay
	      @database.   Objects  can	 possess multiple tags simultaneously.
	      Only the new LVM2	 metadata  format  supports  tagging:  objects
	      using  the LVM1 metadata format cannot be tagged because the on-
	      disk format does not support it.	Snapshots  cannot  be  tagged.
	      Characters allowed in tags are: A-Z a-z 0-9 _ + . -

       --deltag tag
	      Delete the tag tag from a PV, VG or LV, if it's present.

       --alloc AllocationPolicy
	      The  allocation  policy  to use: contiguous, cling, normal, any‐
	      where or inherit.	 When a command	 needs	to  allocate  physical
	      extents  from  the  volume group, the allocation policy controls
	      how they are chosen.  Each volume group and logical  volume  has
	      an  allocation policy.  The default for a volume group is normal
	      which applies common-sense rules such as	not  placing  parallel
	      stripes  on the same physical volume.  The default for a logical
	      volume is inherit which applies the same policy as for the  vol‐
	      ume group.  These policies can be changed using lvchange (8) and
	      vgchange (8) or over-ridden on the command line of  any  command
	      that  performs  allocation.  The contiguous policy requires that
	      new extents be placed adjacent to existing extents.   The	 cling
	      policy  places new extents on the same physical volume as exist‐
	      ing extents in the same stripe of the Logical Volume.  If	 there
	      are sufficient free extents to satisfy an allocation request but
	      normal doesn't use them, anywhere will - even  if	 that  reduces
	      performance by placing two stripes on the same physical volume.

	      N.B. The policies described above are not implemented fully yet.
	      In particular, contiguous free space cannot be broken up to sat‐
	      isfy allocation attempts.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       LVM_SYSTEM_DIR
	      Directory	 containing  lvm.conf  and  other  LVM	system	files.
	      Defaults to "/etc/lvm".

       HOME   Directory containing .lvm_history if the internal readline shell
	      is invoked.

       LVM_VG_NAME
	      The  volume  group  name	that is assumed for any reference to a
	      logical volume that doesn't specify a path.  Not set by default.

VALID NAMES
       The following characters are valid for VG and LV names: a-z A-Z 0-9 + _
       . -

       VG  and	LV  names  cannot begin with a hyphen.	There are also various
       reserved names that are used internally by lvm that can not be used  as
       LV or VG names.	A VG cannot be called anything that exists in /dev/ at
       the time of creation, nor can it be called '.' or '..'.	A LV cannot be
       called  '.'  '..' 'snapshot' or 'pvmove'. The LV name may also not con‐
       tain the strings '_mlog' or '_mimage'

DIAGNOSTICS
       All tools return a status code of zero on success or non-zero on	 fail‐
       ure.

FILES
       /etc/lvm/lvm.conf
       $HOME/.lvm_history

SEE ALSO
       clvmd(8),  lvchange(8),	lvcreate(8),  lvdisplay(8),  lvextend(8), lvm‐
       change(8), lvmdiskscan(8), lvreduce(8), lvremove(8), lvrename(8), lvre‐
       size(8),	 lvs(8),  lvscan(8), pvchange(8), pvck(8), pvcreate(8), pvdis‐
       play(8), pvmove(8),  pvremove(8),  pvs(8),  pvscan(8),  vgcfgbackup(8),
       vgchange(8),  vgck(8),  vgconvert(8),  vgcreate(8), vgdisplay(8), vgex‐
       tend(8),	 vgimport(8),  vgmerge(8),  vgmknodes(8),  vgreduce(8),	 vgre‐
       move(8),	  vgrename(8),	vgs(8),	 vgscan(8),  vgsplit(8),  readline(3),
       lvm.conf(5)

Sistina Software UK    LVM TOOLS 2.02.44-cvs (02-17-09)			LVM(8)
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