| NVME-DIR-SEND(1) | NVMe Manual | NVME-DIR-SEND(1) |
NAME
nvme-dir-send - Issue a directive send command, returns applicable results
SYNOPSIS
nvme [<global-options>] dir send <device>
[--namespace-id=<nsid> | -n <nsid>]
[--data-len=<data-len> | -l <data-len>]
[--dir-type=<dtype> | -D <dtype>]
[--dir-spec=<dspec> | -S <dspec>]
[--dir-oper=<doper> | -O <doper>]
[--endir=<endir> | -e <endir>]
[--target-dir=<tdir> | -T <tdir>] [--raw-binary | -b]
DESCRIPTION
Submits an NVMe Directive Send admin command and returns the applicable results. This may be the combination of directive type, and operation, as well as target directive and its enable/disable status of the operation, if specific operation needs it.
The <device> parameter is mandatory and may be either the NVMe character device (ex: /dev/nvme0), or a namespace block device (ex: /dev/nvme0n1).
On success, the returned directive’s parameter structure (if applicable) is returned in one of several ways depending on the option flags; the structure may parsed by the program and displayed in hex, or the raw buffer may be printed to stdout for another program to parse.
The bare nvme dir-send form (without a space) still works as a deprecated alias and will be removed in a future major version. New scripts should use nvme dir send instead.
OPTIONS
-n <nsid>, --namespace-id=<nsid>
-D <dtype>, --dir-type=<dtype>
-S <dspec>, --dir-spec=<dspec>
-O <doper>, --dir-oper=<doper>
-T <tdir>, --target-dir=<nsr>
-e <endir>, --endir=<endir>
| Select | Description |
| 0 | Current |
| 1 | Default |
| 2 | Saved |
| 3 | Supported capabilities |
| 4–7 | Reserved |
-l <data-len>, --data-len=<data-len>
-b, --raw-binary
GLOBAL OPTIONS
The following options are defined at the top-level nvme command and are available to this subcommand:
--dry-run
--no-ioctl-probing
--no-retries
-o <fmt>, --output-format=<fmt>
--output-format-version=<version>
--quiet
--set-options=<key=value>[,<key=value>...]
--timeout=<ms>
-v, --verbose
These options can also be set as machine-wide defaults in nvme-cli.conf(5). A command-line flag always overrides the file.
EXAMPLES
# nvme dir send /dev/nvme0n1 --dir-type 0 --dir-oper 1 --target-dir 1 --endir 1
# nvme dir send /dev/nvme0n1 --dir-type 0 --dir-oper 1 --target-dir 1 --endir 0
# nvme dir send /dev/nvme0n1 --dir-type 1 --dir-oper 2
# nvme dir send /dev/nvme0 --dir-type 1 --dir-oper 1 --dir-spec 3
It is probably a bad idea to not redirect stdout when using this mode.
NVME
Part of the nvme-user suite
| 10/30/2026 | NVMe |