LXC.LIST(1)

🦋 NAME

lxc-list — the part where you list your instances, bestie 💅

(context so you're not confused: this whole page lives under LXD - Command line client(1) 🫶)

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

lxc list [:] [...] [flags]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Okay so real talk, here's what it does: it lists instances. That's the whole vibe.

Default column layout: ns46tS Fast column layout: nsacPt

Now, the filters. Pay attention, this is the good part 👑

• A single keyword like "web" — that lists any instance with a name starting with "web".
• A regular expression on the instance name. (e.g. .*web.*01$).
• A key/value pair referring to a configuration item. For those, the namespace can be abbreviated to the smallest unambiguous identifier.
• A key/value pair where the key is a shorthand. Multiple values must be delimited by ,. Available shorthands:
  • type={instance type}
  • status={instance current lifecycle status}
  • architecture={instance architecture}
  • location={location name}
  • ipv4={ip or CIDR}
  • ipv6={ip or CIDR}

Examples: (literally the manpage's own, I'm not making these up)

• "user.blah=abc" will list all instances with the "blah" user property set to "abc".
• "u.blah=abc" will do the same
• "security.privileged=true" will list all privileged instances
• "s.privileged=true" will do the same
• "type=container" will list all container instances
• "type=container status=running" will list all running container instances

A regular expression matching a configuration item or its value. (e.g. volatile.eth0.hwaddr=00:16:3e:.*).

When multiple filters are passed, they are added one on top of the other, selecting instances which satisfy them all. (Stack 'em, they all gotta pass 💀)

🎀 Columns 🎀

The -c option takes a comma separated list of arguments that control which instance attributes to output when displaying in table or csv format.

Column arguments are either pre-defined shorthand chars (see below), or (extended) config keys.

Commas between consecutive shorthand chars are optional. (slay, low effort)

Pre-defined column shorthand chars:

• 4 — IPv4 address
• 6 — IPv6 address
• a — Architecture
• b — Storage pool
• c — Creation date
• d — Description
• D — disk usage
• e — Project name
• l — Last used date
• m — Memory usage
• M — Memory usage (%)
• n — Name
• N — Number of Processes
• p — PID of the instance's init process
• P — Profiles
• s — State
• S — Number of snapshots
• t — Type (container or virtual-machine, ephemeral indicated if applicable)
• u — CPU usage (in seconds)
• L — Location of the instance (e.g. its cluster member)
• f — Base Image Fingerprint (short)
• F — Base Image Fingerprint (long)

Custom columns are defined with "[config:|devices:]key[:name][:maxWidth]":

• KEY: The (extended) config or devices key to display. If [config:|devices:] is omitted then it defaults to config key.
• NAME: Name to display in the column header. Defaults to the key if not specified or empty.
• MAXWIDTH: Max width of the column (longer results are truncated). Defaults to -1 (unlimited). Use 0 to limit to the column header size.

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• --all-projects[=false] — Display instances from all projects
• -c, --columns="ns46tSL" — Columns``
• --fast[=false] — Fast mode (same as --columns=nsacPt)
• -f, --format="table" — Format `(csv|json|table|yaml|compact)```

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🌈 OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS 🌈

(these come from the parent command, not from lxc list itself — just so you know 🧚)

• --debug[=false] — Show all debug messages
• --force-local[=false] — Force using the local unix socket
• -h, --help[=false] — Print help
• --project="" — Override the source project``
• -q, --quiet[=false] — Don't show progress information
• --sub-commands[=false] — Use with help or --help to view sub-commands
• -v, --verbose[=false] — Show all information messages
• --version[=false] — Print version number

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🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

lxc list -c nFs46,volatile.eth0.hwaddr:MAC,config:image.os,devices:eth0.parent:ETHP

Show instances using the "NAME", "BASE IMAGE", "STATE", "IPV4", "IPV6" and "MAC" columns. "BASE IMAGE", "MAC" and "IMAGE OS" are custom columns generated from instance configuration keys. "ETHP" is a custom column generated from a device key.

lxc list -c ns,user.comment:comment

List instances with their running state and user comment.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

lxc(1) — go read that one too, iykyk 💜

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📜 HISTORY 📜

22-Aug-2026 Auto generated by spf13/cobra

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okay that's the whole page, you ate that 🍓 and for the record this was Auto generated by spf13/cobra, dated Aug 2026, living under LXD - Command line client(1) — mwah, go list some instances bestie 💅✨