DUMPE2FS(8) System Manager's Manual DUMPE2FS(8)

# [NAME](#NAME)

dumpe2fs - dump ext2/ext3/ext4 file system information

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**dumpe2fs** \[ **-bfghixV** ] \[ **-o superblock=*superblock*** *]* *\[* **-o blocksize=*blocksize*** *]* *device*

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**dumpe2fs** prints the super block and blocks group information for the file system present on *device.*

The *device* specifier can either be a filename (i.e., /dev/sda1), or a LABEL or UUID specifier: "**LABEL=volume-label**" or "**UUID=uuid**". (i.e., LABEL=home or UUID=e40486c6-84d5-4f2f-b99c-032281799c9d).

**Note:** When used with a mounted file system, the printed information may be old or inconsistent.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-b**](#b)

print the blocks which are reserved as bad in the file system.

[**-o superblock=*superblock***](#o)

use the block *superblock* when examining the file system. This option is not usually needed except by a file system wizard who is examining the remains of a very badly corrupted file system.

[**-o blocksize=*blocksize***](#o~2)

use blocks of *blocksize* bytes when examining the file system. This option is not usually needed except by a file system wizard who is examining the remains of a very badly corrupted file system.

[**-f**](#f)

force dumpe2fs to display a file system even though it may have some file system feature flags which dumpe2fs may not understand (and which can cause some of dumpe2fs's display to be suspect).

[**-g**](#g)

display the group descriptor information in a machine readable colon-separated value format. The fields displayed are the group number; the number of the first block in the group; the superblock location (or -1 if not present); the range of blocks used by the group descriptors (or -1 if not present); the block bitmap location; the inode bitmap location; and the range of blocks used by the inode table.

[**-h**](#h)

only display the superblock information and not any of the block group descriptor detail information.

[**-i**](#i)

display the file system data from an image file created by **e2image**, using *device* as the pathname to the image file.

[**-m**](#m)

If the **mmp** feature is enabled on the file system, check if *device* is in use by another node, see [**e2mmpstatus**(8)](/man/os/e2fsprogs/e2mmpstatus.8) for full details. If used together with the **-i** option, only the MMP block information is printed.

[**-x**](#x)

print the detailed group information block numbers in hexadecimal format

[**-V**](#V)

print the version number of **dumpe2fs** and exit.

# [EXIT CODE](#EXIT_CODE)

**dumpe2fs** exits with a return code of 0 if the operation completed without errors. It will exit with a non-zero return code if there are any errors, such as problems reading a valid superblock, bad checksums, or if the device is in use by another node and **-m** is specified.

# [BUGS](#BUGS)

You may need to know the physical file system structure to understand the output.

# [AUTHOR](#AUTHOR)

**dumpe2fs** was written by Remy Card <Remy.Card@linux.org>. It is currently being maintained by Theodore Ts'o <tytso@alum.mit.edu>.

# [AVAILABILITY](#AVAILABILITY)

**dumpe2fs** is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available from http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**e2fsck**(8)](/man/os/e2fsprogs/e2fsck.8), [**e2mmpstatus**(8)](/man/os/e2fsprogs/e2mmpstatus.8), [**mke2fs**(8)](/man/os/e2fsprogs/mke2fs.8), [**tune2fs**(8)](/man/os/e2fsprogs/tune2fs.8). [**ext4**(5)](/man/os/e2fsprogs/ext4.5)

March 2025 E2fsprogs version 1.47.4

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Document: dumpe2fs(8) from e2fsprogs 1.47.4-r5 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/tytso/e2fsprogs