The dumpe2fs command is used to dump ext2, ext3, and ext4 file system information. It prints the superblock and block group information for the selected device. This can be useful when troubleshooting a faulty file system.
Syntax
The syntax of the dumpe2fs command is:
# dumpe2fs [options] {device/ file system name}
dumpe2fs Command Options
The dumpe2fs command has various options.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -x | Print a detailed report about block numbers in the file system. |
| -b | Print the bad blocks in the file system. |
| -f | Force the utility to display the file system status irrespective of the file system flags. |
| -i | Display file system data from an image file created using the e2image command. |
If you encounter the below error while running the dumpe2fs command:
dumpe2fs: command not found
you may install below package as per your choice of distribution:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| OS X | brew install e2fsprogs |
| Debian | apt-get install e2fsprogs |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install e2fsprogs |
| Alpine | apk add e2fsprogs |
| Arch Linux | pacman -S e2fsprogs |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install e2fsprogs |
| CentOS | yum install e2fsprogs |
| Fedora | dnf install e2fsprogs |
| Raspbian | apt-get install e2fsprogs |
dumpe2fs Command Examples
1. Display ext2, ext3 and ext4 filesystem information:
# dumpe2fs /dev/sdXN
2. Display the blocks which are reserved as bad in the filesystem:
# dumpe2fs -b /dev/sdXN
3. Force display filesystem information even with unrecognizable feature flags:
# dumpe2fs -f /dev/sdXN
4. Only display the superblock information and not any of the block group descriptor detail information:
# dumpe2fs -h /dev/sdXN
5. Print the detailed group information block numbers in hexadecimal format:
# dumpe2fs -x /dev/sdXN