Question: How do I identify my file system type? I like to upgrade my current file system to the latest ext4. Before that I would like to know what my current file system type is for various mount points I have on my UNIX system.
Answer: Use any one of the five methods mentioned below to identify your file system type.
Method 1: Use df -T Command
The -T option in the df command displays the file system type.
# df -T | awk '{print $1,$2,$NF}' | grep "^/dev"
/dev/sda1 ext2 /
/dev/sdb1 ext3 /home
/dev/sdc1 ext3 /u01
Method 2: Use Mount Command
Use the mount command as shown below.
# mount | grep "^/dev" /dev/sda1 on / type ext2 (rw) /dev/sdb1 on /home type ext3 (rw) /dev/sdc1 on /u01 type ext3 (rw)
As shown in the above example:
- /dev/sda1 is ext2 file system type. (mounted as /)
- /dev/sdb1 is ext3 file system type. (mounted as /home)
- /dev/sdc1 is ext3 file system type. (mounted as /u01)
Method 3: Use file Command
As root, use the file command as shown below. You need to pass the individual device name to the file command.
# file -sL /dev/sda1 /dev/sda1: Linux rev 1.0 ext2 filesystem data (mounted or unclean) (large files) # file -sL /dev/sdb1 /dev/sda1: Linux rev 1.0 ext3 filesystem data (needs journal recovery)(large files) # file -sL /dev/sdc1 /dev/sda1: Linux rev 1.0 ext3 filesystem data (needs journal recovery)(large files)
Note: You should execute the file command as root user. If you execute as non-root user, you’ll still get some output. But, that will not display the file system type as shown below.
$ file -sL /dev/sda1 /dev/sda1: writable, no read permission
Method 4: View the /etc/fstab file
If a particular mount point is configured to be mounted automatically during system startup, you can identify its file system type by looking at the /etc/fstab file.
As shown in the example below, / is ext2, /home is ext3, and /u01 is ext3.
# cat /etc/fstab LABEL=/r / ext2 defaults 1 1 LABEL=/home /home ext3 defaults 0 0 LABEL=/u01 /u01 ext3 defaults 0 0
Method 5: Use fsck Command
Execute the fsck command as shown below. This will display the file system type of a given device.
# fsck -N /dev/sda1 fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) [/sbin/fsck.ext2 (1) -- /] fsck.ext2 /dev/sda1 # fsck -N /dev/sdb1 fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) [/sbin/fsck.ext3 (1) -- /home] fsck.ext3 /dev/sdb1 # fsck -N /dev/sdc1 fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) [/sbin/fsck.ext3 (1) -- /u01] fsck.ext3 /dev/sdc1
If you don’t have the root access, but would like to identify your file system type, use /sbin/fsck -N as shown above.
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i thought df -khT does it all on all distributions
df -khT
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg0-root
ext3 992M 386M 556M 41% /
/dev/mapper/vg0-var
ext3 3.9G 229M 3.5G 7% /var
/dev/mapper/vg0-usr
ext3 3.9G 972M 2.8G 26% /usr
/dev/mapper/vg0-home
ext3 992M 34M 908M 4% /home
/dev/mapper/vg0-opt
ext3 7.8G 702M 6.7G 10% /opt
/dev/mapper/vg0-srv
ext3 12G 158M 11G 2% /srv
/dev/sda1 ext3 145M 19M 119M 14% /boot
tmpfs tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm
none tmpfs 1.0G 12K 1.0G 1% /tmp
There is also df -T:
/dev/hda4 ext3 191048 216716 160848 12% /usr/local
/dev/sda6 reiserfs 5242716 2315728 2926988 45% /var
/dev/sdb1 xfs 3135488 1952644 1182844 63% /opt
Another useful command:
# df -T | grep /dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ext4 73744616 35400512 34598056 51% /
Go check the command “dumpe2fs”. It does give you just what you are expecting.
another way to know your file system type is by issuing the command “df -T”
Another easiest way to check as follows:
[abanerjee@test1 abanerjee]$ df -hT
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 ext3 1011M 661M 299M 69% /
/dev/sda1 ext3 76M 24M 48M 33% /boot
/dev/sda5 ext3 1011M 455M 505M 48% /opt
none tmpfs 503M 0 503M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda7 ext3 494M 19M 449M 4% /tmp
/dev/sda8 ext3 28G 2.6G 23G 10% /usr
/dev/sda6 ext3 1011M 292M 668M 31% /var
Install gParted.
I think df is quicker and has a cleaner output:
df -hT
Although I now use ‘di’ which is a improved version of ‘df’ with better display options. I use the following to display disk status on my server with long LVM names.
di -f SMBuv2T -H -st -xnone
@All,
Thanks for pointing out the “df -T” command to get the file system type. I’ve updated the article accordingly.
There’s a command ‘blkid’ which will tell You what kind of filesystem (and what UUID) is on which partition:
sudo blkid /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: UUID=”0986d8b7-c066-d9ee-2379-27252f387269″ TYPE=”linux_raid_member”
sudo blkid /dev/md2
/dev/md2: UUID=”3eaf4b7f-f912-439c-833c-287d6e082339″ TYPE=”reiserfs”
The ‘df’ command or ‘mount’ won’t help if the filesystem you’re checking is on not mounted partition.
one more command is blkid. (sudo blkid | awk ‘{print $1 ” ” $4}’)
sulti beat me in this.
Also please tell us ways to find out the size of a block in a file system ?
To find out the file system present in a disk we can also use this following command.
sudo /lib/udev/vol_id /dev/sda1
Sample Output:
ID_FS_USAGE=filesystem
ID_FS_TYPE=ext3
ID_FS_VERSION=1.0
ID_FS_UUID=8ebcdd36-44d2-456f-9b6b-97725e12d188
ID_FS_UUID_ENC=8ebcdd36-44d2-456f-9b6b-97725e12d188
ID_FS_LABEL=/boot
ID_FS_LABEL_ENC=\x2fboot
ID_FS_LABEL_SAFE=boot
Note:Only for Persistent file system(like ext2,ext3..).Not for logical file system like procfs, tmpfs.
sathiya, for the block sizes check with fdisk
Hi,
New version of “df” command has some new useful options like “–total”
WARNING: The file command does NOT work for ext4 fs type, as shown below.
$ sudo file -sL /dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb1: Linux rev 1.0 ext2 filesystem data (mounted or unclean), UUID=e5280988-66ff-44af-9eda-caff33db6413 (large files)
$ fsck -N /dev/sdb1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
[/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) — /mnt/sdc1] fsck.ext4 /dev/sdb1
blkid will also give file system type
Another useful command:
You can see file system type of non-mounted partition also.
lsblk -fs