- How to see a list of available filesystems that I can use for the mkfs command?
- 3 Answers 3
- Linux command to list file systems available for mounting?
- 3 Answers 3
- The Linux LS Command – How to List Files in a Directory + Option Flags
- Prerequisites
- The Linux ls Command
- How to list Files in a Directory with Options
- List files in the current working directory
- List files in another directory
- List files in the root directory
- List files in the parent directory
- List files in the user’s home directory (/home/user)
- List only directories
- List files with subdirectories
- List files recursively
- List files with their sizes
- List files in long format
- List files in long format with readable file sizes
- List files including hidden files
- List files in long format including hidden files
- List files and sort by date and time
- List files and sort by file size
- List files and output the result to a file
- Conclusion
- How to get the complete and exact list of mounted filesystems in Linux?
- 5 Answers 5
How to see a list of available filesystems that I can use for the mkfs command?
Simply I would like to create some FAT filesystem. I would like to know what kind of FAT filesystems are available and what are their names. How can I do this from the command line?
3 Answers 3
If this is output intended to be read by a human, then simply:
These are in Section 8, a section of the Linux Programmer’s Manual. Section 8 covers administration and privileged commands. This assumes you have the appropriate package containing this manual page installed.
It should mention FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 for instance.
For more on the kinds of FAT that the questioner asks about there is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT_filesystem_and_Linux .
There is short and incomplete list in man mkfs in see also section http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/mkfs.8.html
mkdosfs(8), mke2fs(8), mkfs.bfs(8), mkfs.ext2(8), mkfs.ext3(8), mkfs.ext4(8), mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.msdos(8), mkfs.vfat(8), mkfs.xfs(8)
And there is longer list in list of all standard Linux mans: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/dir_all_alphabetic.html
mke2fs(8) - create an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem mke2fs.conf(5) - Configuration file for mke2fs . mkfs(8) - build a Linux filesystem mkfs.bfs(8) - make an SCO bfs filesystem mkfs.btrfs(8) - create a btrfs filesystem mkfs.cramfs(8) - make compressed ROM file system mkfs.minix(8) - make a Minix filesystem mkfs.xfs(8) - construct an XFS filesystem
Distribution will list much more mkfs’s, there is ubuntu’s list (search for mkfs): http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/saucy/man8/
[TXT] jfs_mkfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.bfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.btrfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.exfat.8.html [TXT] mkfs.ext2.8.html [TXT] mkfs.ext3.8.html [TXT] mkfs.ext4.8.html [TXT] mkfs.ext4dev.8.html [TXT] mkfs.f2fs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.gfs2.8.html [TXT] mkfs.hfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.hfsplus.8.html [TXT] mkfs.jfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.logfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.lustre.8.html [TXT] mkfs.minix.8.html [TXT] mkfs.msdos.8.html [TXT] mkfs.nilfs2.8.html [TXT] mkfs.ntfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.ocfs2.8.html [TXT] mkfs.reiser4.8.html [TXT] mkfs.reiserfs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.ufs.8.html [TXT] mkfs.vfat.8.html [TXT] mkfs.xfs.8.html [TXT] mkntfs.8.html [TXT] mkreiser4.8.html [TXT] mkreiserfs.8.html
Not all tools will be installed by default. In Ubuntu you can try to run the tool, and if it is not installed, Ubuntu will give you hint about package name to install the tool.
Linux command to list file systems available for mounting?
What terminal command will return data that includes the file systems that are currently available for mounting on my system? Specifically, I am using Ubuntu 15.04, though I would prefer an answer that is valid for all *nix users. NOTES: I don’t want to know what IS mounted, I want to know what is available. I don’t want to check the type of file system (ext2, ext4, ntsf, etc.), I want to know which file systems are available to be mounted (sda2, fd1, etc.).
Do you mean which filesystems (e.g, ext4, xfs, tmpfs) are available, or what disk devices which potentially contain filesystems (e.g, sdb1, sdd3) are available?
@duskwuff No, I do not mean file system TYPES (ext4, etc.), I mean file systems (which are formatted to a type). Please see CompTIA for clarification of the terms.
What you are describing sounds like storage devices, not file systems. If CompTIA uses the phrase «file systems» to describe this, I’m sorry, but they are wrong.
3 Answers 3
On Ubuntu you can use to show discs:
or to check all partitions on your system
sudo blkid -o list | grep "not mounted"
or if you just want the device:
sudo blkid -o list | grep "not mounted" | awk ''
Just to point out, since you edited, the command sudo blkid -o list | grep «not mounted» is the one that was correct.
Regarding the question «command will return data that includes the file systems that are currently available for mounting on my system».
Granted from the powerful PROC file system, the available (or, static + dynamically installed) file systems in a running Linux could be found by:
In my linux 3.10.0, the result is:
$cat /proc/filesystems nodev sysfs nodev rootfs nodev ramfs nodev bdev nodev proc nodev cgroup nodev cpuset nodev tmpfs nodev devtmpfs nodev debugfs nodev securityfs nodev sockfs nodev dax nodev bpf nodev pipefs nodev configfs nodev devpts nodev hugetlbfs nodev autofs nodev pstore .
This is the meta-data, the «mount» command will find and use.
Then, with below command, it lists all the mounted file systems.
$cat /proc/mounts /dev/sda1 /boot xfs rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota 0 0 . cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/devices cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices 0 0
The third field of each line, like xfs or cgroup, is the «file system», which is just mentioned in previous command.
The Linux LS Command – How to List Files in a Directory + Option Flags
Bolaji Ayodeji
Since the creation of Unix in the 1970s, a lot of operating systems have used it as their foundation. Many of these operating systems failed, while others succeeded.
Linux is one of the most popular Unix based operating systems. It’s open source, and is used all over the world across many industries.
One amazing feature of the Linux operating system is the Command Line Interface (CLI) which allows users to interact with their computer from a shell. The Linux shell is a REPL (Read, Evaluate, Print, Loop) environment where users can enter a command and the shell runs it and returns a result.
The ls command is one of the many Linux commands that allow a user to list files or directories from the CLI.
In this article, we’ll go in depth on the ls command and some of the most important flags you’ll need day-to-day.
Prerequisites
- A computer with directories and files
- Have one of the Linux distros installed
- Basic knowledge of navigating around the CLI
- A smile on your face 🙂
The Linux ls Command
The ls command is used to list files or directories in Linux and other Unix-based operating systems.
Just like you navigate in your File explorer or Finder with a GUI, the ls command allows you to list all files or directories in the current directory by default, and further interact with them via the command line.
Launch your terminal and type ls to see this in action:
How to list Files in a Directory with Options
The ls command also accepts some flags (also known as options) which are additional information that changes how files or directories are listed in your terminal.
In other words, flags change how the ls command works:
PS: The word contents used in throughout the article refers to the files and directories being listed, not the actual contents of the files/directories ?
List files in the current working directory
Type the ls command to list the contents of the current working directory:
List files in another directory
Type the ls [directory path here] command to list the contents of another directory:
List files in the root directory
Type the ls / command to list the contents of the root directory:
List files in the parent directory
Type the ls .. command to list the contents of the parent directory one level above. Use ls ../.. for contents two levels above:
List files in the user’s home directory (/home/user)
Type the ls ~ command to list the contents in the users’s home directory:
List only directories
Type the ls -d */ command to list only directories:
List files with subdirectories
Type the ls * command to list the contents of the directory with it’s subdirectories:
List files recursively
Type the ls -R command to list all files and directories with their corresponding subdirectories down to the last file:
If you have a lot of files, this can take a very long time to complete as every single file in each directory will be printed out. You can instead specify a directory to run this command in, like so: ls Downloads -R
List files with their sizes
Type the ls -s command (the s is lowercase) to list files or directories with their sizes:
List files in long format
Type the ls -l command to list the contents of the directory in a table format with columns including:
- content permissions
- number of links to the content
- owner of the content
- group owner of the content
- size of the content in bytes
- last modified date / time of the content
- file or directory name
List files in long format with readable file sizes
Type the ls -lh command to list the files or directories in the same table format above, but with another column representing the size of each file/directory:
Note that sizes are listed in bytes (B), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB) when the file or directory’s size is larger than 1024 bytes.
List files including hidden files
Type the ls -a command to list files or directories including hidden files or directories. In Linux, anything that begins with a . is considered a hidden file:
List files in long format including hidden files
Type the ls -l -a or ls -a -l or ls -la or ls -al command to list files or directories in a table format with extra information including hidden files or directories:
List files and sort by date and time
Type the ls -t command to list files or directories and sort by last modified date in descending order (biggest to smallest).
You can also add a -r flag to reverse the sorting order like so: ls -tr :
List files and sort by file size
Type the ls -S (the S is uppercase) command to list files or directories and sort by size in descending order (biggest to smallest).
You can also add a -r flag to reverse the sorting order like so: ls -Sr :
List files and output the result to a file
Type the ls > output.txt command to print the output of the preceding command into an output.txt file. You can use any of the flags discussed before like -la — the key point here is that the result will be outputted into a file and not logged to the command line.
Then you can use the file as you see fit, or log the contents of the file with cat output.txt :
Conclusion
There are tons of other commands and combinations you can explore to list out files and directories based on your needs. One thing to remember is the ability to combine multiple commands together at once.
Imagine you want to list a file in long format, including hidden files, and sort by file size. The command would be ls -alS , which is a combination of ls -l , ls -a , and ls -S .
If you forget any command or are unsure about what to do, you can run ls —help or man ls which will display a manual with all possible options for the ls command:
How to get the complete and exact list of mounted filesystems in Linux?
I usually use mount to check which filesystems are mounted. I also know there is some connection between mount and /etc/mtab but I’m not sure about the details. After reading How to check if /proc/ is mounted I get more confused. My question is: How to get the most precise list of mounted filesystems? Should I just use mount , or read the contents of /etc/mtab , or contents of /proc/mounts ? What would give the most trustworthy result?
I can’t help linking to What is /etc/mtab in Linux? because it covers non-Linux details that none of the answers here give.
5 Answers 5
The definitive list of mounted filesystems is in /proc/mounts .
If you have any form of containers on your system, /proc/mounts only lists the filesystems that are in your present container. For example, in a chroot, /proc/mounts lists only the filesystems whose mount point is within the chroot. (There are ways to escape the chroot, mind.)
There’s also a list of mounted filesystems in /etc/mtab . This list is maintained by the mount and umount commands. That means that if you don’t use these commands (which is pretty rare), your action (mount or unmount) won’t be recorded. In practice, it’s mostly in a chroot that you’ll find /etc/mtab files that differ wildly from the state of the system. Also, mounts performed in the chroot will be reflected in the chroot’s /etc/mtab but not in the main /etc/mtab . Actions performed while /etc/mtab is on a read-only filesystem are also not recorded there.
The reason why you’d sometimes want to consult /etc/mtab in preference to or in addition to /proc/mounts is that because it has access to the mount command line, it’s sometimes able to present information in a way that’s easier to understand; for example you see mount options as requested (whereas /proc/mounts lists the mount and kernel defaults as well), and bind mounts appear as such in /etc/mtab .