# man > PVSCAN(8) [_PVSCAN_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PVSCAN/8/markdown) System Manager's Manual [_PVSCAN_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PVSCAN/8/markdown) ## NAME pvscan — List all physical volumes ## SYNOPSIS **pvscan _**option_args_ _position_args_ [ _option_args_ ] [ _position_args_ ] **-a**|**--activate y**|**n**|**ay** **--autoactivation _**String_ **--cache** **--checkcomplete** **--commandprofile _**String_ **--config _**String_ **-d**|**--debug** **--devices _**PV_ **--devicesfile _**String_ **--driverloaded y**|**n** **-e**|**--exported** **-h**|**--help** **--ignorelockingfailure** **--journal _**String_ **--listlvs** **--listvg** **--lockopt _**String_ **--longhelp** **-j**|**--major _**Number_ **--minor _**Number_ **--nohints** **--nolocking** **--noudevsync** **-n**|**--novolumegroup** **--profile _**String_ **-q**|**--quiet** **--reportformat basic**|**json** **-s**|**--short** **-t**|**--test** **--udevoutput** **-u**|**--uuid** **-v**|**--verbose** **--version** **--vgonline** **-y**|**--yes** ## DESCRIPTION When called without the --cache option, pvscan lists PVs on the system, like [**pvs**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvs/8/markdown) or **pvdis‐** [**play**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/play/8/markdown). When --cache is used, pvscan updates runtime lvm state on the system, or with -aay performs autoactivation. **pvscan --cache _**device_ If device is present, lvm records that the PV on device is online. If device is not present, lvm removes the online record for the PV. pvscan only reads the named device. ### pvscan --cache Updates the runtime state for all lvm devices. **pvscan --cache -aay _**device_ Performs the --cache steps for the device, then checks if the VG using the device is com‐ plete. If so, LVs in the VG are autoactivated, the same as vgchange -aay vgname would do. (A device name may be replaced with major and minor numbers.) ### pvscan --cache -aay Performs the --cache steps for all devices, then autoactivates any complete VGs. **pvscan --cache --listvg|--listlvs _**device_ Performs the --cache steps for the device, then prints the name of the VG using the device, or the names of LVs using the device. --checkcomplete is usually included to check if all PVs for the VG or LVs are online. When this command is called by a udev rule, the output must conform to udev rule specifications (see --udevoutput.) The udev rule will use the re‐ sults to perform autoactivation. Autoactivation of VGs or LVs can be enabled/disabled using vgchange or lvchange with --setau‐ toactivation y|n, or by adding names to [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) **activation/auto_activation_volume_list** See [**lvmautoactivation**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmautoactivation/7/markdown) for more information about how pvscan is used for autoactivation. ## USAGE Display PV information. ### pvscan [ **-e**|**--exported **] [ **-n**|**--novolumegroup **] [ **-s**|**--short **] [ **-u**|**--uuid **] [ **--ignorelockingfailure **] [ **--reportformat basic**|**json **] [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — Record that a PV is online or offline. ### pvscan --cache [ **-j**|**--major _**Number_ ] [ **--ignorelockingfailure **] [ **--reportformat basic**|**json **] [ **--minor _**Number_ ] [ **--noudevsync **] [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] [ _String_|_PV_ ... ] — Record that a PV is online and autoactivate the VG if complete. **pvscan --cache -a**|**--activate ay** [ **-j**|**--major _**Number_ ] [ **--ignorelockingfailure **] [ **--reportformat basic**|**json **] [ **--minor _**Number_ ] [ **--noudevsync **] [ **--autoactivation _**String_ ] [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] [ _String_|_PV_ ... ] — Record that a PV is online and list the VG using the PV. **pvscan --cache --listvg _**PV_ [ **--ignorelockingfailure **] [ **--checkcomplete **] [ **--vgonline **] [ **--udevoutput **] [ **--autoactivation _**String_ ] [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — Record that a PV is online and list LVs using the PV. **pvscan --cache --listlvs _**PV_ [ **--ignorelockingfailure **] [ **--checkcomplete **] [ **--vgonline **] [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — List LVs using the PV. **pvscan --listlvs _**PV_ [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — List the VG using the PV. **pvscan --listvg _**PV_ [ COMMON_OPTIONS ] — Common options for lvm: [ **-d**|**--debug **] [ **-h**|**--help **] [ **-q**|**--quiet **] [ **-t**|**--test **] [ **-v**|**--verbose **] [ **-y**|**--yes **] [ **--commandprofile _**String_ ] [ **--config _**String_ ] [ **--devices _**PV_ ] [ **--devicesfile _**String_ ] [ **--driverloaded y**|**n **] [ **--journal _**String_ ] [ **--lockopt _**String_ ] [ **--longhelp **] [ **--nohints **] [ **--nolocking **] [ **--profile _**String_ ] [ **--version **] ## OPTIONS ### -a --activate y Auto-activate LVs in a VG when the PVs scanned have completed the VG. (Only **ay **is ap‐ plicable.) **--autoactivation _**String_ Specify if autoactivation is being used from an event. This allows the command to ap‐ ply settings that are specific to event activation, such as device scanning optimiza‐ tions using pvs_online files created by event-based pvscans. ### --cache Scan one or more devices and record that they are online. ### --checkcomplete Check if all the devices used by a VG or LV are present, and print "complete" or "in‐ complete" for each listed VG or LV. This option is used as a part of event-based au‐ toactivation, so pvscan will do nothing if this option is set and event_activation=0 in the config settings. **--commandprofile _**String_ The command profile to use for command configuration. See [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) for more infor‐ mation about profiles. **--config _**String_ Config settings for the command. These override [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) settings. The String arg uses the same format as [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown), or may use section/field syntax. See [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) for more information about config. ### -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). **--devices _**PV_ Restricts the devices that are visible and accessible to the command. Devices not listed will appear to be missing. This option can be repeated, or accepts a comma sep‐ arated list of devices. This overrides the devices file. **--devicesfile _**String_ A file listing devices that LVM should use. The file must exist in _/etc/lvm/devices/_ and is managed with the [**lvmdevices**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdevices/8/markdown) command. This overrides the [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown) **de‐** **vices/devicesfile **and **devices/use_devicesfile **settings. **--driverloaded y**|**n** If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper. For testing and de‐ bugging. ### -e --exported Only show PVs belonging to exported VGs. ### -h --help Display help text. ### --ignorelockingfailure Allows a command to continue with read-only metadata operations after locking fail‐ ures. **--journal _**String_ Record information in the systemd journal. This information is in addition to infor‐ mation enabled by the lvm.conf log/journal setting. command: record information about the command. output: record the default command output. debug: record full command debugging. ### --listlvs Print a list of LVs that use the device. ### --listvg Print the VG that uses the device. **--lockopt _**String_ Used to pass options for special cases to lvmlockd. See [**lvmlockd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmlockd/8/markdown) for more informa‐ tion. ### --longhelp Display long help text. ### -j --major _ The major number of a device. **--minor _**Number_ The minor number of a device. ### --nohints Do not use the hints file to locate devices for PVs. A command may read more devices to find PVs when hints are not used. The command will still perform standard hint file invalidation where appropriate. ### --nolocking Disable locking. Use with caution, concurrent commands may produce incorrect results. ### --noudevsync Disables udev synchronisation. The process will not wait for notification from udev. It will continue irrespective of any possible udev processing in the background. Only use this if udev is not running or has rules that ignore the devices LVM creates. ### -n --novolumegroup Only show PVs not belonging to any VG. **--profile _**String_ An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on the command. ### -q --quiet Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --verbose. Repeat once to also suppress any prompts with answer 'no'. **--reportformat basic**|**json** Overrides current output format for reports which is defined globally by the re‐ port/output_format setting in [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown). **basic **is the original format with columns and rows. If there is more than one report per command, each report is prefixed with the report name for identification. **json **produces report output in JSON format. See [**lvmreport**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmreport/7/markdown) for more information. ### -s --short Short listing format. ### -t --test Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This is implemented by disabling all metadata writing but nevertheless returning success to the calling function. This may lead to unusual error messages in multi-stage operations if a tool relies on read‐ ing back metadata it believes has changed but hasn't. ### --udevoutput Command output is modified to be imported from a udev rule. ### -u --uuid Show UUIDs in addition to device names. ### -v --verbose Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the detail of messages sent to stdout and stderr. ### --version Display version information. ### --vgonline The first command to see a complete VG will report it uniquely. Other commands to see the complete VG will report it differently. ### -y --yes Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume the answer yes. Use with extreme caution. (For automatic no, see -qq.) ## VARIABLES _PV_ Physical Volume name, a device path under /dev. For commands managing physical ex‐ tents, a PV positional arg generally accepts a suffix indicating a range (or multiple ranges) of physical extents (PEs). When the first PE is omitted, it defaults to the start of the device, and when the last PE is omitted it defaults to end. Start and end range (inclusive): _PV_[**:_**PE_**-_**PE_]... Start and length range (counting from 0): _PV_[**:_**PE_**+_**PE_]... _String_ See the option description for information about the string content. _Size_[UNIT] Size is an input number that accepts an optional unit. Input units are always treated as base two values, regardless of capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default input unit is specified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT represents other possible input units: **b**|**B **is bytes, **s**|**S **is sectors of 512 bytes, **k**|**K **is KiB, **m**|**M** is MiB, **g**|**G **is GiB, **t**|**T **is TiB, **p**|**P **is PiB, **e**|**E **is EiB. (This should not be confused with the output control --units, where capital letters mean multiple of 1000.) ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES See [**lvm**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm/8/markdown) for information about environment variables used by lvm. For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally be substituted for a required VG parameter. ## SEE ALSO [**lvm**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm/8/markdown), [**lvm.conf**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm.conf/5/markdown), [**lvmconfig**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmconfig/8/markdown), [**lvmdevices**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdevices/8/markdown), [**pvchange**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvchange/8/markdown), [**pvck**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvck/8/markdown), [**pvcreate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvcreate/8/markdown), [**pvdisplay**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvdisplay/8/markdown), [**pvmove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvmove/8/markdown), [**pvremove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvremove/8/markdown), [**pvresize**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvresize/8/markdown), [**pvs**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvs/8/markdown), [**pvscan**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pvscan/8/markdown), [**vgcfgbackup**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgcfgbackup/8/markdown), [**vgcfgrestore**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgcfgrestore/8/markdown), [**vgchange**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgchange/8/markdown), [**vgck**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgck/8/markdown), [**vgcreate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgcreate/8/markdown), [**vgconvert**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgconvert/8/markdown), [**vgdisplay**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgdisplay/8/markdown), [**vgexport**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgexport/8/markdown), [**vgextend**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgextend/8/markdown), [**vgimport**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgimport/8/markdown), [**vgimportclone**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgimportclone/8/markdown), [**vgimportdevices**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgimportdevices/8/markdown), [**vgmerge**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgmerge/8/markdown), [**vgmknodes**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgmknodes/8/markdown), [**vgreduce**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgreduce/8/markdown), [**vgremove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgremove/8/markdown), [**vgrename**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgrename/8/markdown), [**vgs**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgs/8/markdown), [**vgscan**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgscan/8/markdown), [**vgsplit**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/vgsplit/8/markdown), [**lvcreate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvcreate/8/markdown), [**lvchange**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvchange/8/markdown), [**lvconvert**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvconvert/8/markdown), [**lvdisplay**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvdisplay/8/markdown), [**lvextend**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvextend/8/markdown), [**lvreduce**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvreduce/8/markdown), [**lvremove**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvremove/8/markdown), [**lvrename**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvrename/8/markdown), [**lvresize**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvresize/8/markdown), [**lvs**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvs/8/markdown), [**lvscan**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvscan/8/markdown), [**lvm-fullreport**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm-fullreport/8/markdown), [**lvm-lvpoll**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvm-lvpoll/8/markdown), [**blkdeactivate**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/blkdeactivate/8/markdown), [**lvmdump**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdump/8/markdown), [**dmeventd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dmeventd/8/markdown), [**lvmpolld**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmpolld/8/markdown), [**lvmlockd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmlockd/8/markdown), [**lvmlockctl**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmlockctl/8/markdown), [**cmirrord**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/cmirrord/8/markdown), [**lvmdbusd**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmdbusd/8/markdown), [**fsadm**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fsadm/8/markdown), [**lvmsystemid**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmsystemid/7/markdown), [**lvmreport**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmreport/7/markdown), [**lvmraid**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmraid/7/markdown), [**lvmthin**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmthin/7/markdown), [**lvmcache**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lvmcache/7/markdown) Red Hat, Inc. LVM TOOLS [2.03.16(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/2.03.16/2/markdown) (2022-05-18) [_PVSCAN_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PVSCAN/8/markdown)