NVME-ADMIN-PASSTHR(1)

💅 NVME-ADMIN-PASSTHR(1) — nvme-admin-passthru

okay so welcome to the NVMe manual page for nvme-admin-passthru, bestie. This is the one where you submit an arbitrary admin command and get the results back. It does zero interpretation of the opcodes or options, so it’s raw command energy only. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

nvme-admin-passthru — Submit an arbitrary admin command, return results

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

nvme [<global-options>] admin-passthru <device>
                        [--opcode=<opcode> | -O <opcode>]
                        [--flags=<flags> | -f <flags>]
                        [-rsvd=<rsvd> | -R <rsvd>]
                        [--namespace-id=<nsid> | -n <nsid>]
                        [--cdw2=<cdw2> | -2 <cdw2>]
                        [--cdw3=<cdw3> | -3 <cdw3>]
                        [--cdw10=<cdw10> | -4 <cdw10>]
                        [--cdw11=<cdw11> | -5 <cdw11>]
                        [--cdw12=<cdw12> | -6 <cdw12>]
                        [--cdw13=<cdw13> | -7 <cdw13>]
                        [--cdw14=<cdw14> | -8 <cdw14>]
                        [--cdw15=<cdw15> | -9 <cdw15>]
                        [--data-len=<data-len> | -l <data-len>]
                        [--metadata-len=<len> | -m <len>]
                        [--input-file=<file> | -i <file>]
                        [--read | -r] [--write | -w]
                        [--show-command | -s]
                        [--dry-run | -d]
                        [--raw-binary | -b]
                        [--prefill=<prefill> | -p <prefill>]
                        [--latency | -T]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Submits an arbitrary NVMe admin command and returns the applicable results. This may be simply the command’s result and status, or it may also include a buffer if the command returns one. This command does no interpretation of the opcodes or options. 🎀

The <device> parameter is mandatory and may be either the NVMe character device (ex: /dev/nvme0), or a namespace block device (ex: /dev/nvme0n1). Literally cannot skip it, bestie.

On success, the returned structure (if applicable) may be returned in one of several ways depending on the option flags. The structure may be printed by the program as a hex dump, or may be returned as a raw buffer printed to stdout for another program to parse. ✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -O <opcode>, --opcode=<opcode> — The NVMe opcode to send to the device in the command. Required argument as this param is mandatory. No opcode, no party.
• -f <flags>, --flags=<flags> — The NVMe command flags to send to the device in the command.
• -R <rsvd>, --rsvd=<rsvd> — The value for the reserved field in the command.
• -n <nsid>, --namespace-id=<nsid> — The value for the ns-id in the command. The broadcast value 0xffffffff can also be given as all or -1.
• -[2-9] <cdw>, --cdw[2-3,10-15]=<cdw> — Specifies the command dword value for that specified entry in the command. Yes, that range notation is the original vibe.
• -r, --read, -w, --write — Used for the data-direction for the command and required for commands sending/receiving data. Don’t use both read and write at the same time. Like, genuinely don’t.
• -i <file>, --input-file=<file> — If the command is a data-out (write) command, use this file to fill the buffer sent to the device. If no file is given, assumed to use STDIN.
• -l <data-len>, --data-len=<data-len> — The data length for the buffer used for this command.
• -m <data-len>, --metadata-len=<data-len> — The metadata length for the buffer used for this command.
• -s, --show-cmd — Print out the command to be sent.
• -d, --dry-run — Do not actually send the command. If want to use --dry-run option, --show-cmd option must be set. Otherwise --dry-run option will be ignored.
• -b, --raw-binary — Print the raw returned buffer to stdout if the command returns a structure.
• -p, --prefill — Prefill the buffer with a predetermined byte value. Defaults to 0. This may be useful if the data you are writing is shorter than the required buffer, and you need to pad it with a known value. It may also be useful if you need to confirm if a device is overwriting a buffer for a data-in command.
• -T, --latency — Print out the latency the IOCTL took (in us).

🌈 GLOBAL OPTIONS 🌈

The following options are defined at the top-level nvme command and are available to this subcommand:

• --dry-run — Print the command that would be executed, but do not actually execute it.
• --no-ioctl-probing — Disable probing for 64-bit IOCTL support.
• --no-retries — Disable retry logic on transient errors.
• -o <fmt>, --output-format=<fmt> — Set the reporting format to normal, tabular, 'json, or binary. Only one output format may be used at a time.
• --output-format-version=<version> — Select the output format version. Version 1 uses the original field naming, while version 2 (default) provides more consistent and script-friendly field names. Other versions are rejected.
• --quiet — Suppress informational messages. Errors are still reported, and --quiet cancels any --verbose for the library log level.
• --set-options=<key=value>[,<key=value>...] — Set libnvme library options for this invocation. Supported keys are force-4k, mi-probe-enabled, test-base-dir and test-sysfs-dir.
• --timeout=<ms> — Set the timeout for the command in milliseconds. infinite or -1 waits without a time limit (0xffffffff).
• -v, --verbose — Increase the level of detail in the output. May be specified multiple times to further increase verbosity.

These options can also be set as machine-wide defaults in nvme-cli.conf(5). A command-line flag always overrides the file. Periodt. 💅

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

• The following will run the admin command with opcode=6 and cdw10=1, which corresponds to an identify controller command. This example requires the data-len param be 4096, which is the size of the returned structure. The -r option is used because it is a data-in command:

# nvme admin-passthru /dev/nvme0 --opcode=0x06 --data-len=4096 --cdw10=1 -r

• Or if you want to save that structure to a file:

# nvme admin-passthru /dev/nvme0 --opcode=0x06 --data-len=4096 --cdw10=1 -r -b > id_ns.raw

👑 NVME 👑

Part of the nvme-user suite. 🦋

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💖 that’s the whole page, bestie. This one is from the NVMe source/version, dated 10/30/2026. Go forth and passthru responsibly. 👑✨