--bootloaderareasize

Create a separate bootloader area of specified size besides PV's data area. The bootloader area is anarea of reserved space on the PV from which LVM will not allocate any extents and it's kept untouched.This is primarily aimed for use with bootloaders to embed their own data or metadata. The start of thebootloader area is always aligned, see also --dataalignment and --dataalignmentoffset. The bootloaderarea size may eventually end up increased due to the alignment, but it's never less than the size thatis requested. To see the bootloader area start and size of an existing PV use pvs -o+pv_ba_start,pv_ba_size.

--commandprofile

The command profile to use for command configuration. See lvm.conf(5) for more information about pro‐files.

--config

Config settings for the command. These override lvm.conf settings. The String arg uses the same formatas lvm.conf, or may use section/field syntax. See lvm.conf(5) for more information about config.

--dataalignment

Align the start of the data to a multiple of this number. Also specify an appropriate Physical Extentsize when creating a VG. To see the location of the first Physical Extent of an existing PV, use pvs

--dataalignmentoffset

Shift the start of the data area by this additional offset.

-d|--debug

Set debug level. Repeat from 1 to 6 times to increase the detail of messages sent to the log fileand/or syslog (if configured).

--driverloaded

If set to no, the command will not attempt to use device-mapper. For testing and debugging.

-f|--force

Override various checks, confirmations and protections. Use with extreme caution.

-h|--help

Display help text.

--labelsector

By default the PV is labelled with an LVM2 identifier in its second sector (sector 1). This lets youuse a different sector near the start of the disk (between 0 and 3 inclusive - see LABEL_SCAN_SECTORSin the source). Use with care.

--longhelp

Display long help text.

--metadataignore

Specifies the metadataignore property of a PV. If yes, metadata areas on the PV are ignored, and lvmwill not store metadata in the metadata areas of the PV. If no, lvm will store metadata on the PV.

--metadatasize

The approximate amount of space used for each VG metadata area. The size may be rounded.

-M|--metadatatype

Specifies the type of on-disk metadata to use. lvm2 (or just 2) is the current, standard format. lvm1(or just 1) is a historical format that can be used for accessing old data.

--norestorefile

In conjunction with --uuid, this allows a uuid to be specified without also requiring that a backup ofthe metadata be provided.

--profile

An alias for --commandprofile or --metadataprofile, depending on the command.

--[pv]metadatacopies

The number of metadata areas to set aside on a PV for storing VG metadata. When 2, one copy of the VGmetadata is stored at the front of the PV and a second copy is stored at the end. When 1, one copy ofthe VG metadata is stored at the front of the PV (starting in the 5th sector). When 0, no copies ofthe VG metadata are stored on the given PV. This may be useful in VGs containing many PVs (this placeslimitations on the ability to use vgsplit later.)

-q|--quiet

Suppress output and log messages. Overrides --debug and --verbose. Repeat once to also suppress anyprompts with answer 'no'.

--reportformat

Overrides current output format for reports which is defined globally by the report/output_format set‐ting in lvm.conf. basic is the original format with columns and rows. If there is more than onereport per command, each report is prefixed with the report name for identification. json producesreport output in JSON format. See lvmreport(7) for more information.

--restorefile

In conjunction with --uuid, this reads the file (produced by vgcfgbackup), extracts the location andsize of the data on the PV, and ensures that the metadata produced by the program is consistent withthe contents of the file, i.e. the physical extents will be in the same place and not be overwritten bynew metadata. This provides a mechanism to upgrade the metadata format or to add/remove metadata areas.Use with care.

--setphysicalvolumesize

Overrides the automatically detected size of the PV. Use with care, or prior to reducing the physicalsize of the device.

-t|--test

Run in test mode. Commands will not update metadata. This is implemented by disabling all metadatawriting 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 buthasn't.

-u|--uuid

Specify a UUID for the device. Without this option, a random UUID is generated. This option is neededbefore restoring a backup of LVM metadata onto a replacement device; see vgcfgrestore(8). As such, useof --restorefile is compulsory unless the --norestorefile is used. All PVs must have unique UUIDs, andLVM will prevent certain operations if multiple devices are seen with the same UUID. See vgimport‐clone(8) for more information.

-v|--verbose

Set verbose level. Repeat from 1 to 4 times to increase the detail of messages sent to stdout andstderr.

--version

Display version information.

-y|--yes

Do not prompt for confirmation interactively but always assume the answer yes. Use with extreme cau‐tion. (For automatic no, see -qq.)

-Z|--zero

Controls if the first 4 sectors (2048 bytes) of the device are wiped. The default is to wipe thesesectors unless either or both of --restorefile or --uuid are specified.VARIABLESPVPhysical Volume name, a device path under /dev. For commands managing physical extents, a PV posi‐tional 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 isomitted it defaults to end. Start and end range (inclusive): PV[:PE-PE]... Start and length range(counting from 0): PV[:PE+PE]...StringSee 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 val‐ues, regardless of capitalization, e.g. 'k' and 'K' both refer to 1024. The default input unit isspecified by letter, followed by |UNIT. UNIT represents other possible input units: bBsSkKmMgGtTpPeE.b|B is bytes, s|S is sectors of 512 bytes, k|K is kilobytes, m|M is megabytes, g|G is gigabytes, t|T isterabytes, p|P is petabytes, e|E is exabytes. (This should not be confused with the output control

--units,

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLESSee lvm(8) for information about environment variables used by lvm. For example, LVM_VG_NAME can generally besubstituted for a required VG parameter.EXAMPLESInitialize a partition and a full device.pvcreate /dev/sdc4 /dev/sdeIf a device is a 4KiB sector drive that compensates for windows partitioning (sector 7 is the lowest alignedlogical block, the 4KiB sectors start at LBA -1, and consequently sector 63 is aligned on a 4KiB boundary)manually account for this when initializing for use by LVM.pvcreate --dataalignmentoffset 7s /dev/sdb