How To Linux List Disk Partitions Command
How do I list all hard disk partitions under a Linux operating systems using the CLI?
Usually, your hard disk drive divided into one or more logical disks called partitions. This division is described in the partition table found in sector 0 of the hard disk. The device is usually /dev/sda, /dev/sdb or so on. A device name refers to the entire disk, and the device name will be as follows:
- /dev/hd* – IDE disks. /dev/hda will be first IDE hard disk, /dev/hdb will be second IDE hard disk, and so on.
- /dev/sd* – SCSI or SATA disks including SSDs. /dev/sda will be first SATA/SCSI hard disk, /dev/sdb will be second SATA/SCSI hard disk, and so on.
- /dev/nvme* – NVM Express (NVMe) pci SSD. /dev/nvme0n1 will be first NVMe SSD, /dev/nvme1n1 will be second NVMe SSD, and so on.
WARNING! These examples may crash your computer if NOT executed with proper care. BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH THE FOLLOWING COMMANDS. ONE TYPING MISTAKE AND ALL YOUR DATA IS LOST.
lsblk Command to list block device on Linux
To list all block devices, run:
# lsblk
# lsblk /dev/DEVICE
# lsblk /dev/sda
# lsblk -l
# lsblk -d | grep disk
We can also fine-tune information displayed by lsblk as follows to list only Linux partitions and other data:
# lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT
Pass the following -f and -m to see detailed info:
# lsblk -f -m
# lsblk -f -m | grep ext4
Understanding lsblk option that displays block devices and partitions
- -m : Show info about Linux permissions
- -f : List info about Linux filesystems
- -l : Force list format output option
- -d : Avoid printing holders. In other words just see block device/disk names
- -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT : Only display selected columns as per Table 1.
| Column | Descripton |
|---|---|
| NAME | device name |
| KNAME | internal kernel device name |
| PATH | path to the device node |
| MAJ:MIN | major:minor device number |
| FSAVAIL | filesystem size available |
| FSSIZE | filesystem size |
| FSTYPE | filesystem type |
| FSUSED | filesystem size used |
| FSUSE% | filesystem use percentage |
| MOUNTPOINT | where the device is mounted |
| LABEL | filesystem LABEL |
| UUID | filesystem UUID |
| PTUUID | partition table identifier (usually UUID) |
| PTTYPE | partition table type |
| PARTTYPE | partition type UUID |
| PARTLABEL | partition LABEL |
| PARTUUID | partition UUID |
| PARTFLAGS | partition flags |
| RA | read-ahead of the device |
| RO | read-only device |
| RM | removable device |
| HOTPLUG | removable or hotplug device (usb, pcmcia, …) |
| MODEL | device identifier |
| SERIAL | disk serial number |
| SIZE | size of the device |
| STATE | state of the device |
| OWNER | user name |
| GROUP | group name |
| MODE | device node permissions |
| ALIGNMENT | alignment offset |
| MIN-IO | minimum I/O size |
| OPT-IO | optimal I/O size |
| PHY-SEC | physical sector size |
| LOG-SEC | logical sector size |
| ROTA | rotational device |
| SCHED | I/O scheduler name |
| RQ-SIZE | request queue size |
| TYPE | device type |
| DISC-ALN | discard alignment offset |
| DISC-GRAN | discard granularity |
| DISC-MAX | discard max bytes |
| DISC-ZERO | discard zeroes data |
| WSAME | write same max bytes |
| WWN | unique storage identifier |
| RAND | adds randomness |
| PKNAME | internal parent kernel device name |
| HCTL | Host:Channel:Target:Lun for SCSI |
| TRAN | device transport type |
| SUBSYSTEMS | de-duplicated chain of subsystems |
| REV | device revision |
| VENDOR | device vendor |
| ZONED | zone model |
How to locate/print block device attributes using blkid
Apart from physical block storage and logical partitions, your Linux box may have software RAID and encrypted hard disks too. We can determine the type of filesystem that a block device holds and also the attributes:
# blkid
List partitions ynder Linux using the fdisk command
Open a terminal window (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal). Switch to the root user by typing the su - and entering the root password, when prompted by the su command. Or use the sudo command:
$ su -
# fdisk -l
OR
$ sudo fdisk -l
You can specify device name as follows (in this example list partitions for /dev/sda):
# fdisk -l
Display disk partitions using sfdisk command in Linux
The sfdisk command act as a partition table manipulator for Linux. You can use this tool to list partitions too:
# sfdisk -l /dev/sda
# sfdisk -lu /dev/sda
# sfdisk -ls /dev/sda
Linux partitions info:
71669760 Disk /dev/sda: 8922 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 0+ 104- 105- 838656 83 Linux /dev/sda2 104+ 235- 131- 1048576 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda3 235+ 8922- 8688- 69781504 83 Linux /dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
Where,
- -l : List the partitions of a device.
- -s : List the size of a partition.
- -u or -uS or -uB or -uC or -uM : Accept or report in units of sectors (blocks, cylinders, megabytes, respecpively). The default is cylinders, at least when the geometry is known.
How Do I List All Partitions Layout On All Block Devices?
Pass the -l OR –list option to the parted command to lists partition layout on all block devices:
# parted -l
Using hardware detction tools to print disk paritions on Linux
You can install and use the following tools. We can use the hwinfo command to probe for hardware as follows:
hwinfo | more
hwinfo --block | more
hwinfo --block --short
inxi -P
inxi -p | more