4.9.1. Format Control

Whether you use the pvs, lvs, or vgs command determines the default set of fields displayed and the sort order. You can control the output of these commands with the following arguments:

You can change what fields are displayed to something other than the default by using the -o argument. For example, the following output is the default display for the pvs command (which displays information about physcial volumes).
```
# pvs
  PV         VG     Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree
  /dev/sdb1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.14G
  /dev/sdc1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.09G
  /dev/sdd1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.14G
```
The following command displays only the physical volume name and size.
```
# pvs -o pv_name,pv_size
  PV         PSize
  /dev/sdb1  17.14G
  /dev/sdc1  17.14G
  /dev/sdd1  17.14G
```

You can append a field to the output with the plus sign (+), which is used in combination with the -o argument.

The following example displays the UUID of the physical volume in addition to the default fields.

# pvs -o +pv_uuid
  PV         VG     Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree  PV UUID
  /dev/sdb1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.14G onFF2w-1fLC-ughJ-D9eB-M7iv-6XqA-dqGeXY
  /dev/sdc1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.09G Joqlch-yWSj-kuEn-IdwM-01S9-XO8M-mcpsVe
  /dev/sdd1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.14G yvfvZK-Cf31-j75k-dECm-0RZ3-0dGW-tUqkCS

Adding the -v argument to a command includes some extra fields. For example, the pvs -v command will display the DevSize and PV UUID fields in addition to the default fields.

# pvs -v
    Scanning for physical volume names
  PV         VG     Fmt  Attr PSize  PFree  DevSize PV UUID
  /dev/sdb1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.14G  17.14G onFF2w-1fLC-ughJ-D9eB-M7iv-6XqA-dqGeXY
  /dev/sdc1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.09G  17.14G Joqlch-yWSj-kuEn-IdwM-01S9-XO8M-mcpsVe
  /dev/sdd1  new_vg lvm2 a-   17.14G 17.14G  17.14G yvfvZK-Cf31-j75k-dECm-0RZ3-0dGW-tUqkCS

The --noheadings argument suppresses the headings line. This can be useful for writing scripts.

The following example uses the --noheadings argument in combination with the pv_name argument, which will generate a list of all physical volumes.
```
# pvs --noheadings -o pv_name
  /dev/sdb1
  /dev/sdc1
  /dev/sdd1
```

The --separator separator argument uses separator to separate each field. This can be useful in a script if you are running a grep command on the output.

The following example separates the default output fields of the pvs command with an equals sign (=).

# pvs --separator =
  PV=VG=Fmt=Attr=PSize=PFree
  /dev/sdb1=new_vg=lvm2=a-=17.14G=17.14G
  /dev/sdc1=new_vg=lvm2=a-=17.14G=17.09G
  /dev/sdd1=new_vg=lvm2=a-=17.14G=17.14G

To keep the fields aligned when using the separator argument, use the separator argument in conjunction with the --aligned argument.

# pvs --separator = --aligned
  PV        =VG    =Fmt =Attr=PSize =PFree
  /dev/sdb1 =new_vg=lvm2=a-  =17.14G=17.14G
  /dev/sdc1 =new_vg=lvm2=a-  =17.14G=17.09G
  /dev/sdd1 =new_vg=lvm2=a-  =17.14G=17.14G

You can use the -P argument of the lvs or vgs command to display information about a failed volume that would otherwise not appear in the output. For information on the output this argument yields, see Section 6.2, “Displaying Information on Failed Devices”.

For a full listing of display arguments, see the pvs(8), vgs(8) and lvs(8) man pages.

Volume group fields can be mixed with either physical volume (and physical volume segment) fields or with logical volume (and logical volume segment) fields, but physical volume and logical volume fields cannot be mixed. For example, the following command will display one line of output for each physical volume.

# vgs -o +pv_name
  VG     #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize  VFree  PV
  new_vg   3   1   0 wz--n- 51.42G 51.37G /dev/sdc1
  new_vg   3   1   0 wz--n- 51.42G 51.37G /dev/sdd1
  new_vg   3   1   0 wz--n- 51.42G 51.37G /dev/sdb1