NVME-NS-DESCS(1)

📦
version 3.2 · 14 versions
, in arch rolling

✨ NVME-NS-DESCS ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to your little guide for nvme-ns-descs 🎀 — it lives in section 1 of the NVMe Manual, and tbh the whole thing is basically a "hey remember me?" situation. Let's get into it 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

nvme [<global-options>] ns-descs <device>
                        [--namespace-id=<nsid> | -n <nsid>]
                        [--raw-binary | -b]

literally that's the whole shape of it: you give it a <device>, you can optionally say which namespace with --namespace-id=<nsid> (or the short -n <nsid>), and you can ask for raw bytes with --raw-binary (or -b) 🦋

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So here's the tea 🍵: nvme-ns-descs is a deprecated alias for nvme-id-ns-descs(1). It got kept around for all the scripts people wrote against nvme-cli versions older than 3.0. The options and behavior are identical — no cap — only the top-level command name is retained. like, the name is the entire personality here 😭

New scripts should use nvme id ns-descs instead, periodt. This alias prints a deprecation warning on stderr and may be removed in a future release — so don't get too attached, bestie 💀

And if you want the full option reference? Head over to nvme-id-ns-descs(1) — that's where the real menu lives 🍓

What it does, in one breath: send NVMe Identify for a list of Namespace Identification Descriptor structure, return result and structure. iconic behavior honestly 👑

⭐ GLOBAL OPTIONS ⭐

These are defined at the top-level nvme command, and they're all available to this subcommand too — so you're not missing out on anything, bestie 🫶

  • --dry-run — prints the command that would be executed, but doesn't actually execute it. it's giving window shopping 🛍️
  • --no-ioctl-probing — disables probing for 64-bit IOCTL support. no probing, no problem ✨
  • --no-retries — kills the retry logic on transient errors. one shot, one opportunity 💅
  • -o <fmt>, --output-format=<fmt> — sets the reporting format to normal, tabular, json, or binary. Only one output format may be used at a time — pick your fighter, don't pick two 🙈
  • --output-format-version=<version> — selects the output format version. Version 1 uses the original field naming, while version 2 (the default) provides more consistent and script-friendly field names. Other versions are rejected — no sneaky in-between versions, nope 🚫
  • --quiet — suppresses informational messages. Errors are still reported, and --quiet cancels any --verbose for the library log level. quiet girl era 🤫
  • --set-options=<key=value>[,<key=value>...] — sets libnvme library options for this invocation. Supported keys are force-4k, mi-probe-enabled, test-base-dir and test-sysfs-dir 🔧
  • --timeout=<ms> — sets the timeout for the command in milliseconds. infinite or -1 waits without a time limit (0xffffffff). no clock, no stress ⏳
  • -v, --verbose — increases the level of detail in the output. May be specified multiple times to further increase verbosity — stack it like bracelets, girl 🌈
Also lowkey important: these options can be set as machine-wide defaults in nvme-cli.conf(5). A command-line flag always overrides the file. flags stay winning 👑

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

No Examples

(she said nothing. silence. the audacity 😭)

🌸 NVME 🌸

Part of the nvme-user suite — one of the girls 🎀

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

okay that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this was NVMe manual content, dated 10/30/2026 — mwah, love u, read ur manpages, bye 👋💅✨

📦 where this page comes from