From bc88ad1a5fb73b38836c8b5b152440f642cd9da8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benno Schulenberg Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 22:11:52 +0100 Subject: docs: improve wording and formatting of blkid man page Furthermore, explain the device argument right at the beginning, since it is not an option, and alphabetize -k. Signed-off-by: Benno Schulenberg --- misc-utils/blkid.8 | 137 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------------- 1 file changed, 67 insertions(+), 70 deletions(-) (limited to 'misc-utils/blkid.8') diff --git a/misc-utils/blkid.8 b/misc-utils/blkid.8 index 94acdf16e..0d5f4235c 100644 --- a/misc-utils/blkid.8 +++ b/misc-utils/blkid.8 @@ -5,15 +5,14 @@ .\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License. .\" .\" Based on uuidgen, Mon Sep 17 10:42:12 2000, Andreas Dilger -.TH BLKID 8 "February 2011" "util-linux" "System Administration" +.TH BLKID 8 "March 2013" "util-linux" "System Administration" .SH NAME blkid \- locate/print block device attributes .SH SYNOPSIS .B blkid -.RB \-L -.IR label " | " -.RB \-U -.IR uuid +.BI \-L " label" +| +.BI \-U " uuid" .B blkid .RB [ \-dghlv ] @@ -21,22 +20,21 @@ blkid \- locate/print block device attributes .IR file ] .RB [ \-o .IR format ] -.in +6 .RB [ \-s .IR tag ] +.in +6 .RB [ \-t .IR NAME=value ] -[\fIdevice\fR ...] +.RI [ device " ...]" .in -6 .B blkid -.RB -p -.RB [ \-O +.BR -p " [" \-O .IR offset ] -.RB [ \-S -.IR size ] .RB [ \-o .IR format ] +.RB [ \-S +.IR size ] .RB [ \-s .IR tag ] .in +9 @@ -44,16 +42,15 @@ blkid \- locate/print block device attributes .IR list ] .RB [ \-u .IR list ] -.IR device " ... " +.IR device " ..." .in -9 .B blkid -.RB -i -.RB [ \-o +.BR -i " [" \-o .IR format ] .RB [ \-s .IR tag ] -.IR device " ... " +.IR device " ..." .SH DESCRIPTION The @@ -61,15 +58,25 @@ The program is the command-line interface to working with the .BR libblkid (3) library. It can determine the type of content (e.g. filesystem or swap) -that a block device holds, and also attributes (tokens, NAME=value pairs) +that a block device holds, and also the attributes (tokens, NAME=value pairs) from the content metadata (e.g. LABEL or UUID fields). .PP +When +.I device +is specified, tokens from only this device are displayed. +It is possible to specify multiple +.I device +arguments on the command line. +If none is given, all devices which appear in +.I /proc/partitions +are shown, if they are recognized. +.PP Note that .B blkid reads information directly from devices and for non-root users -it returns cached unverified information. It's better to use +it returns cached unverified information. It is better to use .B lsblk --fs -to get user-friendly overview about filesystems and devices. +to get a user-friendly overview of filesystems and devices. .BR lsblk (8) is also easy to use in scripts. .B blkid @@ -81,22 +88,22 @@ specific NAME=value pair, or displaying NAME=value pairs for one or more specified devices. .SH OPTIONS The \fIsize\fR and \fIoffset\fR arguments may be followed by the multiplicative -suffixes KiB=1024, MiB=1024*1024, and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB -(the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB") or the suffixes -KB=1000, MB=1000*1000, and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB. +suffixes like KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB +(the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes +KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB. .TP .BI \-c " cachefile" Read from .I cachefile -instead of reading from the default cache file (see CONFIGURATION FILE section +instead of reading from the default cache file (see the CONFIGURATION FILE section for more details). If you want to start with a clean cache (i.e. don't report devices previously scanned but not necessarily available at this time), specify .IR /dev/null . .TP .B \-d -Don't encode non-printing characters. The non-printing characters are encoded -by ^ and M- notation by default. Note that \fB-o udev\fR output format uses -a different encoding and this encoding cannot be disabled. +Don't encode non-printing characters. The non-printing characters are encoded +by ^ and M- notation by default. Note that the \fB-o udev\fR output format uses +a different encoding which cannot be disabled. .TP .B \-g Perform a garbage collection pass on the blkid cache to remove @@ -106,36 +113,37 @@ devices which no longer exist. Display a usage message and exit. .TP .B \-i -Display I/O Limits (aka I/O topology) information. The 'export' output format is +Display information about I/O Limits (aka I/O topology). The 'export' output format is automatically enabled. This option can be used together with the \fB-p\fR option. .TP +.B \-k +List all known filesystems and RAIDs and exit. +.TP .B \-l -Look up only one device that matches the search parameter specified with \fB-t\fR +Look up only one device that matches the search parameter specified with the \fB-t\fR option. If there are multiple devices that match the specified search parameter, then the device with the highest priority is returned, and/or the first device found at a given priority. Device types in order of -decreasing priority are Device Mapper, EVMS, LVM, MD, and finally regular +decreasing priority are: Device Mapper, EVMS, LVM, MD, and finally regular block devices. If this option is not specified, .B blkid will print all of the devices that match the search parameter. .TP -.B \-k -List all known filesystems and RAIDs and exit. -.TP .BI \-L " label" -Look up the device that uses this filesystem \fIlabel\fR (equal to: -l -o device -t -LABEL=