CXL-READ-LABELS(1)

💅 cxl-read-labels(1) — the cxl manual, bestie edition

okay so this is cxl-read-labels, and it's literally the "peek behind the curtain" command for your CXL memory devices. Buckle up 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

cxl-read-labels — read out the label area on a CXL memdev 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

cxl read-labels <mem0> [<mem1>..<memN>] [<options>]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the region label area is this tiny persistent partition of capacity that lives on some CXL memory devices, right? and its whole job is to configure or figure out the set of memory devices that are part of different interleave sets. iconic of it honestly 👑

this command dumps the raw binary data in a memdev's label area to stdout or to a file. and if you're doing the multi-memdev thing? the data gets concatenated. one big blob, no cap. 🫶

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• <memory device(s)> — a memX device name, or a memdev id number. use this to restrict the operation to the specified memdev(s). and yes, you can pass the keyword all to say "no restrictions, we're doing everybody" 💅
• -S, --serial — instead of a memdev id number, interpret the <memdev> argument(s) as a list of serial numbers. slay.
• -s, --size= — limit the operation to the given number of bytes. and a size of 0 means "operate over the entire label capacity" — i.e. go off, take it all 🌈
• -O, --offset= — begin the operation at the given offset into the label area. pick your starting point bestie 🎯
• -v — turn on verbose debug messages in the library — but only if libcxl was built with logging and debug enabled. so like, it's giving "conditional queen" 💀
• -b, --bus= — restrict the operation to the specified bus 🚌
• -o, --output — output file 📁

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright © 2016 - 2022, Intel Corporation. License GPLv2: GNU GPL version 2 http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. (fr fr, no warranty, read it and weep 😭)

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

cxl-write-labels(1), cxl-zero-labels(1), CXL-2.0 9.13.2

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💀 friendly reminder that this thing dumps raw binary — so maybe don't just cat it into your terminal and expect a good time. redirect it somewhere, bestie. 🙈

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and that's the page!! this one's from the cxl manual, dated 2026-06-30 — go read some labels, you absolute main character 🧚💜