In this article, we will review a number of Linux command line utilities that you can use to check disk partitions in Linux.
Monitoring storage device(s) space usage is one of the most important tasks of a SysAdmin, this helps to ensure adequate free space remains on the storage devices for efficient running of your Linux system.
Suggested Read: 20 Command Line Tools to Monitor Linux Performance
Command Line Utilities To Print Linux Disk Partition Table
The following is a list of command line utilities for printing storage device partition table and space usage.
1. fdisk (fixed disk) Command
fdisk is a powerful and popular command line tool used for creating and manipulating disk partition tables.
It supports GPT, MBR, Sun, SGI and BSD partition tables. You can run fdisk commands through its user-friendly, text based and menu driven interface to display, create, resize, delete, modify, copy and move partitions on storage disks.
The fdisk command below will print the partition table of all mounted block devices:
$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 82213CA8-50E4-4DDB-9337-85E46DA03430 Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sda1 2048 2050047 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment /dev/sda2 2050048 2582527 532480 260M EFI System /dev/sda3 2582528 4630527 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partition /dev/sda4 4630528 4892671 262144 128M Microsoft reserved /dev/sda5 4892672 1173295103 1168402432 557.1G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda6 1870348288 1922777087 52428800 25G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda7 1922777088 1953523711 30746624 14.7G Windows recovery environment /dev/sda8 1173295104 1173297151 2048 1M BIOS boot /dev/sda9 1173297152 1181110271 7813120 3.7G Linux swap /dev/sda10 1181110272 1870348287 689238016 328.7G Linux filesystem Partition table entries are not in disk order.
For more usage and examples about fdisk command read 10 ‘fdisk’ Command Examples to Manage Partitions
2. sfdisk (scriptable fdisk) Command
sfdisk works more like fdisk, it prints or manipulates a storage disk partition table. However, sfdisk offers extra features not available in fdisk. You can use it just as fdisk, it also supports GPT, MBR, Sun and SGI partition tables.
One difference between the two is that sfdisk does not create the standard system partitions for SGI and SUN disk labels like fdisk does.
$ sudo sfdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 82213CA8-50E4-4DDB-9337-85E46DA03430 Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sda1 2048 2050047 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment /dev/sda2 2050048 2582527 532480 260M EFI System /dev/sda3 2582528 4630527 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partition /dev/sda4 4630528 4892671 262144 128M Microsoft reserved /dev/sda5 4892672 1173295103 1168402432 557.1G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda6 1870348288 1922777087 52428800 25G Microsoft basic data /dev/sda7 1922777088 1953523711 30746624 14.7G Windows recovery environment /dev/sda8 1173295104 1173297151 2048 1M BIOS boot /dev/sda9 1173297152 1181110271 7813120 3.7G Linux swap /dev/sda10 1181110272 1870348287 689238016 328.7G Linux filesystem Partition table entries are not in disk order.
For more usage, go through sfdisk man pages.
3. cfdisk (curses fdisk) Command
cfdisk is simple program used for printing and managing disk partitions. It offers basic partitioning functionality with a user-friendly interface. It operates similar to the more powerful commands: fdisk and sfdisk allowing users to view, add, delete, and modify hard-disk partitions.
Suggested Read: 14 Outstanding Backup Utilities for Linux Systems
Use the right and left arrow keys to move the highlighter over the menu tabs.
$ sudo cfdisk
Disk: /dev/sda
Size: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Label: gpt, identifier: 82213CA8-50E4-4DDB-9337-85E46DA03430
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
>> Free space 2048 2048 0 0B
/dev/sda1 2048 2050047 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environm
/dev/sda2 2050048 2582527 532480 260M EFI System
/dev/sda3 2582528 4630527 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partition
/dev/sda4 4630528 4892671 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda5 4892672 1173295103 1168402432 557.1G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6 1870348288 1922777087 52428800 25G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda7 1922777088 1953523711 30746624 14.7G Windows recovery environm
/dev/sda8 1173295104 1173297151 2048 1M BIOS boot
/dev/sda9 1173297152 1181110271 7813120 3.7G Linux swap
/dev/sda10 1181110272 1870348287 689238016 328.7G Linux filesystem
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Filesystem: ntfs │
│Filesystem label: WINRE_DRV │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
[ New ] [ Quit ] [ Help ] [ Sort ] [ Write ] [ Dump ]
4. Parted Command
parted is also a well-known command line tool for displaying and manipulating disk partitions. It understands multiple partition table formats, including MBR and GPT.
Parted can be used for creating space for new partitions, reorganizing disk usage, and copying data to new hard disks and beyond.
$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M (scsi) Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B Partition Table: gpt Disk Flags: Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 1049kB 1050MB 1049MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag 2 1050MB 1322MB 273MB fat32 EFI system partition boot, hidden, esp 3 1322MB 2371MB 1049MB fat32 Basic data partition hidden 4 2371MB 2505MB 134MB Microsoft reserved partition msftres 5 2505MB 601GB 598GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata 8 601GB 601GB 1049kB bios_grub 9 601GB 605GB 4000MB linux-swap(v1) 10 605GB 958GB 353GB ext4 6 958GB 984GB 26.8GB ntfs Basic data partition msftdata 7 984GB 1000GB 15.7GB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
For more usage read 8 Linux ‘parted’ Command to Manage Linux Disk Partitions
5. lsblk (list block) Command
lsblk prints information including name, type, mountpoint concerning all available or particular mounted block device(s) excluding RAM disks.
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 1000M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 260M 0 part ├─sda3 8:3 0 1000M 0 part ├─sda4 8:4 0 128M 0 part ├─sda5 8:5 0 557.1G 0 part ├─sda6 8:6 0 25G 0 part ├─sda7 8:7 0 14.7G 0 part ├─sda8 8:8 0 1M 0 part ├─sda9 8:9 0 3.7G 0 part [SWAP] └─sda10 8:10 0 328.7G 0 part / sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
6. blkid (block id) Command
blkid a utility that locates or displays block device attributes (NAME=value pair) such as device or partition name, label, its filesystem type among others.
$ blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="WINRE_DRV" UUID="D4A45AAAA45A8EBC" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="dcc4de2d-8fc4-490f-85e0-50c2e18cc33d" /dev/sda2: LABEL="SYSTEM_DRV" UUID="185C-DA5B" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="b13c479a-d63b-4fec-9aee-f926fe7b0b16" /dev/sda3: LABEL="LRS_ESP" UUID="0E60-2E0E" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="d464feab-0791-4866-a36b-90dbe6d6a437" /dev/sda5: LABEL="Windows8_OS" UUID="18D0632AD0630CF6" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="8a66bd5b-8624-4fdb-9ad8-18d8cd356160" /dev/sda6: LABEL="LENOVO" UUID="9286FFD986FFBC33" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="92fbbea9-6bcd-4ae5-a322-c96a07a81013" /dev/sda7: LABEL="PBR_DRV" UUID="ECD06683D066543C" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="0e2878a2-377c-4b35-9454-f1f2c6398405" /dev/sda9: UUID="e040de62-c837-453e-88ee-bd9000387083" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="f5eef371-a152-4208-a62f-0fb287f9acdd" /dev/sda10: UUID="bb29dda3-bdaa-4b39-86cf-4a6dc9634a1b" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="26b60905-1c39-4fd4-bdce-95c517c781fa"
7. hwinfo (hardware info) Command
hwinfo generally prints detailed information about system hardware. But you can run the hwinfo command below, where you employ the -- <HARDWARE_ITEM> option to list all hardware items of the specified type (in this case block devices such as disks and their partitions).
Suggested Read: 8 Best Open Source “Disk Cloning/Backup” Softwares for Linux
To restrict the information to a summary, use --short option as in the command below:
$ hwinfo --short --block
disk: /dev/sda ST1000LM024 HN-M /dev/ram0 Disk /dev/ram1 Disk /dev/ram2 Disk /dev/ram3 Disk /dev/ram4 Disk /dev/ram5 Disk /dev/ram6 Disk /dev/ram7 Disk /dev/ram8 Disk /dev/ram9 Disk /dev/ram10 Disk /dev/ram11 Disk /dev/ram12 Disk /dev/ram13 Disk /dev/ram14 Disk /dev/ram15 Disk partition: /dev/sda1 Partition /dev/sda2 Partition /dev/sda3 Partition /dev/sda4 Partition /dev/sda5 Partition /dev/sda6 Partition /dev/sda7 Partition /dev/sda8 Partition /dev/sda9 Partition /dev/sda10 Partition cdrom: /dev/sr0 PLDS DVD-RW DA8A5SH
Make sure hwinfo tool installed on your system to get the above results..
Command Line Utilities To Monitor Disk Space Usage in Linux
The following is a list of command line utilities for monitoring Linux disk space usage.
8. df (disk filesystem) Command
df prints a summary of file system disk space usage on the terminal. In the command below, -hT switch enables reporting of the disk size, used space, available space and used space percentages in human-readable format.
$ df -hT
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev devtmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /dev tmpfs tmpfs 788M 9.6M 779M 2% /run /dev/sda10 ext4 324G 132G 176G 43% / tmpfs tmpfs 3.9G 86M 3.8G 3% /dev/shm tmpfs tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock tmpfs tmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup cgmfs tmpfs 100K 0 100K 0% /run/cgmanager/fs tmpfs tmpfs 788M 32K 788M 1% /run/user/1000
9. pydf (python df) Command
pydf is an exceptional Python command line utility and a great replacement of df in Linux. It uses distinct colors to highlight disk partitions with specific attributes.
$ pydf
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda10 323G 132G 175G 40.7 [######################................................] /
Make sure pydf utility installed on the system, if not install it using Install Pydf Tool to Monitor Linux Disk Usage.
What if a disk/partition is running out of space in Linux?
Once you realize that any of your storage disk(s) is running out of space or is full, you should:
- First, make a backup of all your important files on the system using any of the Linux system backup tools.
- Next, check which files or directories are occupying the biggest amount of space on the disk(s) using the du command.
- Then delete from the storage disk(s), any files that are no longer important or that you will not use in the future with the help of
rmcommand or you can fslint tool to find and delete unwanted files in Linux. - If your root partition is getting full, you can resize root partition using LVM, it should be pretty straight.
Note: In case you delete any important file, you can recover the deleted file in Linux.
In this article, we have talked about a number of useful command line utilities for displaying storage disk partition table and monitoring space usage.
If there is any important command line utility for the same purpose, that we have left out? Let us know via the comment section below. You can possibly ask a question or provide us feedback as well.
A minor quibble about terminology. All the above commands DISPLAY their output information on the terminal. The output will be PRINTED only if it is piped into some print function. PRINT usually refers to hard copy output.
“If your root partition is getting full, you can resize root partition using LVM”
Isn’t that a rather drastic procedure, requiring a total re-organization of all the storage devices on your system? It would take your system offline for an extended period of time. Wouldn’t using GParted to resize existing partitions be advisable, quicker, and less error-prone?
I don’t call these tools real monitoring tools, because you have them run them manually each time, so you have to do the monitoring yourselves.
What site would be good to get actual help on a Linux problem instead of being told all the things Im doing wrong posting my questions in the wrong site? My problem is I cant access my bios and have no splash screen to choose which O/S I want to log into.I will post some basic info here in hopes that you can help or guide me to anyone that can help.
http://paste.ubuntu.com/26178393/
thank you for your help and time.
Jim
@Jim
To be honest, there is no single straightforward solution to this issue. And from my own experience, no single site will help you solve an Computer/IT problem. You need to carefully peruse through the web and dig through various resources relating to an issue.
But first, what machine are you using(Dell, HP, Samsung, etc..)? There could possibly be a problem with your hardware causing you not to access the BIOS, for example the keyboard. The key for accessing the BIOS depends on the settings of the machine manufacturer, you could be using a wrong key.
You can contact the machine manufacturer or read manuals or documentations to learn how to access the BIOS, that is if it isn’t corrupted.
In addition, from the information you provided, i can noticed that you are using LILO boot loader, i personally prefer GRUB/2, you can change from LILO to GRUB2 using this guide: https://wiki.debian.org/FromLiloToGrub
I hope this will give you a starting point towards solving your issue. In case of any thing, you can always write to us.
Your commands example is OK, but sometime, you have some bad luck. And something is wrong with your system. Block-id, uuid are very hard to identify, if I have several hdd/ssd/whatever.
It could be very difficult to see that /dev/sdX or uuid, is located on xxx device, if I have 2 or more identical hdd/ssd. More simple is to use anywhere (fstab, as a example) /dev/disk/by-id/*.
In this case you will get even the serial-number that is printed to the (any) hdd/ssd label. Try for example this:
and you will understand what I am try to say! And you can use fdisk(whatever) /dev/disk/by-id/yyyyy
Less errors and less mistakes (I make a new gpt table on the wrong disk …)
Have a nice day, with BY-ID :)
I am not sure, that frisk supports GPT, I think that for GPT is gdisk
@Jan
According to the fdisk man page – “fdisk is a dialog-driven program for creation and manipulation of partition tables. It understands GPT, MBR, Sun, SGI and BSD partition tables.” Though i have not extensively tested it on GPT disks, so you might practically be correct.