$ Linux Command

Disk

pvdisplay

Display detailed information about LVM physical volumes.

lvmphysical volumedisplaypvmetadata

Additional Notes

pvdisplay shows detailed information about LVM physical volumes. It displays the PV name, UUID, volume group membership, size, allocation status, physical extent (PE) sizes, and current usage details.

It provides more detail than pvs (which shows summary output) and is used by administrators who need complete metadata about their storage setup. pvdisplay can show information for specific PVs or all PVs on the system.

Syntax

pvdisplay [options] [physical-volume...]

Parameters

  • physical-volume: Optional path to a specific device. If omitted, all PVs are displayed.

Common Options

  • -c, --colon: Output in colon-separated format (machine-parseable).
  • -C, --columns: Output as columns (like pvs).
  • -m, --maps: Display physical extent (PE) allocation map showing which logical volumes use which disk areas.
  • -s, --short: Short format showing only basic information.
  • -v, --verbose: More detailed output.
  • -vv: Very verbose with additional debug information.
  • --units units: Set display units (h for human-readable, b for bytes, k/m/g for KiB/MiB/GiB).
  • --aligned: Align output columns for readability.
  • --all: Show all PVs including those with metadata problems.
  • -S, --select selection: Select PVs based on given criteria.
  • -O, --sort sort-args: Sort output by specified fields.
  • --reportformat basic|json: Output format.

Examples

pvdisplay

Show detailed information about all physical volumes.

pvdisplay /dev/sdb1

Show details for a specific physical volume.

pvdisplay -m

Show the physical extent allocation map. This reveals which LVs occupy which disk areas.

pvdisplay -C

Columnar output format, similar to pvs.

pvdisplay -c /dev/sdb1

Machine-parseable colon-separated output.

pvdisplay -v /dev/sdb1

Verbose output for a specific PV.

pvdisplay --units g

Display sizes in gigabytes.

pvdisplay -S "pv_free > 0"

Show only PVs that have free (unallocated) space.

Practical Notes

  • The output shows total size, allocated size, and free space on each PV.
  • The -m option is critical for understanding disk layout and planning expansions or migrations.
  • When troubleshooting, pvdisplay reveals if a PV is missing, has incorrect metadata, or is part of an incomplete VG.
  • If pvdisplay shows an unknown device, the PV may be missing or disconnected. Use pvscan to discover current PVs.
  • For scripted monitoring, use pvs --reportformat json (newer LVM) for structured output.
  • The PE (Physical Extent) size shown is the allocation unit for the VG. Typical sizes are 4 MiB.