LSIPC(1)

💖 LSIPC(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to lsipc — it's a User Commands girlie from the util-linux fam, and she's about to show you every IPC facility your system is currently using. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

lsipc — show information on IPC facilities currently employed in the system 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

lsipc [options]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like… lsipc shows you the tea on all the POSIX and System V inter-process communication facilities that the calling process has read access to. if you can't read it, she's not gonna spill it. periodt.

⚠️ vibe check, bestie: the default output — and the default output of options that have predefined output columns (like --shmems, etc.) — is subject to change. so whenever possible, avoid using default outputs in your scripts. always explicitly define the expected columns with --output columns-list in any environment where you need stable output. do not skip this. i'm literally begging.

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -i, --id id — show full details on just one resource element (System V) identified by id. this one needs to be combined with one of the three resource options: -m, -q or -s. you can override the default output format for this option with --list, --raw, --json or --export. slay.
• -N, --name name — show full details on just one resource element (POSIX) identified by name. this one also needs to be combined with one of the three resource options: -M, -Q or -S. and yes, you can override the default output format here too with --list, --raw, --json or --export. 🎀
• -g, --global — show system-wide usage and limits of IPC resources. may be combined with one of the three resource options: -m, -q or -s. the default is to show info about all resources. main character energy tbh.
• -h, --help — display help text and exit. classic.
• -V, --version — display version and exit. also classic.

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🔥 Resource options 🔥

• -m, --shmems — write information about active System V shared memory segments. 🍓
• -M, --posix-shmems — write information about active POSIX shared memory segments.
• -q, --queues — write information about active System V message queues.
• -Q, --posix-mqueues — write information about active POSIX message queues.
• -s, --semaphores — write information about active System V semaphore sets.
• -S, --posix-semaphores — write information about active POSIX named semaphores.

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✨ Output formatting ✨

• -c, --creator — show creator and owner. giving credit where credit is due 💖
• -e, --export — produce output in the form of key="value" pairs. all potentially unsafe value characters get hex-escaped as \x<code>. see also the --shell option. 👑
• -J, --json — use the JSON output format. for the girlies who speak API.
• -l, --list — use the list output format. this is the default, except when --id is used.
• -n, --newline — display each piece of information on a separate line. one thing at a time, we love a focused queen.
• --noheadings — do not print a header line. no intros, straight to the plot.
• --notruncate — don't truncate output. she said she's gonna say the whole thing.
• -o, --output list — specify which output columns to print. use --help to get a list of all supported columns. (this is your bestie for stable scripts, remember what we said in DESCRIPTION 💅)
• -b, --bytes — print size in bytes rather than in human readable format. for the numbers girlies.
• -r, --raw — raw output (no columnation).
• -t, --time — write time information. that's: the time of the last control operation that changed the access permissions for all facilities, the time of the last msgsnd(2) and msgrcv(2) operations on message queues, the time of the last shmat(2) and shmdt(2) operations on shared memory, and the time of the last semop(2) operation on semaphores. she keeps receipts. 🕰️
• --time-format type — display dates in short, full or iso format. the default is short, and this time format is designed to be space efficient and human readable. cute and compact. ✨
• -P, --numeric-perms — print numeric permissions in the PERMS column.
• -y, --shell — the column name will be modified to contain only characters allowed for shell variable identifiers. this is usable, for example, with --export. 📌 note the lore: this feature was automatically enabled for --export in version 2.37, but due to compatibility issues, now it's necessary to request this behavior explicitly by using --shell. so yeah, opt in, bestie.

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG=all — enables libsmartcols debug output.
• LIBSMARTCOLS_DEBUG_PADDING=on — use visible padding characters.
• LIBSMARTCOLS_JSON=compact|lines — controls JSON output format when using --json. supported values are compact for JSON output with minimal whitespace, and lines for JSON Lines format (one JSON object per line). if unset or set to any other value, pretty-printed JSON is used. 🦋

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💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

1. 0 — if OK ✅
2. 1 — if incorrect arguments specified 🙈
3. 2 — if a serious error occurs 😭

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🧚 HISTORY 🧚

the lsipc utility is inspired by the ipcs(1) utility. it's giving… legacy. it's giving… homage. we love a glow-up that respects its roots. 🫶

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Ondrej Oprala <ooprala@redhat.com>, Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>

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🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

ipcmk(1), ipcrm(1), msgrcv(2), msgsnd(2), semget(2), semop(2), shmat(2), shmdt(2), shmget(2), sysvipc(7)

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🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

for bug reports, use the issue tracker at <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.

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⭐ AVAILABILITY ⭐

the lsipc command is part of the util-linux package, which can be downloaded from the Linux Kernel Archive at <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was util-linux 2.42.4, dated 2026-09-21, and it lives in the LSIPC(1) manual. go read your IPC facilities, you icon. mwah 🎀✨