thin_dump(8)

🎀 thin_dump(8) 🎀

okay bestie, this is the System Manager's Manual page for thin_dump(8) 💖

✨ NAME ✨

okay so thin_dump is the tool that dumps binary thin provisioning metadata from a device or file and spits it out to standard output 🧚. It's for analysis or postprocessing, and you can get it as XML or human readable format 💅. The XML version can be fed into thin_restore (see thin_restore(8)) to put the metadata back onto a metadata device (for the device-mapper target to process) or onto a file 🔥.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

thin_dump [options] {device|file}

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so thin_dump pulls out the binary thin provisioning metadata made by the device-mapper thin provisioning target on a device or file 🌸. You can also grab it from an alternate block if you want, using --metadata-snap (more on that below) 🫶. It writes everything to standard output, in either XML or human readable format 💜.

⚠️ bestie, you can't run this on live metadata unless you use the --metadata-snap option 💀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -h, --help — shows you the help and then exits 🌷
• -V, --version — shows the version info and then exits 🦋
• -f, --format {xml|human_readable} — picks your output format, so XML or human readable 🎀
• -r, --repair — repairs the metadata while it's being dumped 🛠️✨
• -m, --metadata-snap[=<block nr>] — dumps the metadata snapshot 📸
  • if you don't give a block, it uses the default metadata snapshot the thin provisioning device-mapper target made for you 💖
  • if you do give a block, it tries the snapshot at block nr instead 🧚
  • check the thin provisioning target docs to learn how to create or release a metadata snapshot and how to get the block number from the kernel 📚
• --dev-id {natural} — dumps the specified device 💅
  • you can use this more than once to pick out more than one thin device 👑
• --transaction-id {natural} — overrides the transaction id that's in the input XML 🦋
• --data-block-size {sectors} — overrides the data block size that's in the input XML 🍓
• --nr-data-blocks {natural} — overrides the nr data blocks that's in the input XML 🌈
• --skip-mappings — doesn't dump the mappings, so skip those 🙈
• -o {xml file} — writes the output to a file instead of stdout 💜

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

okay these are my fave examples, bestie 🥹

Dumps the thin provisioning metadata on logical volume /dev/vg/metadata to standard output in human readable format:

$ thin_dump -f human_readable /dev/vg/metadata

Dumps the thin provisioning metadata on logical volume /dev/vg/metadata to standard output in XML format:

$ thin_dump /dev/vg/metadata

Dumps the thin provisioning metadata snapshot on logical volume /dev/vg/metadata to standard output in human readable format (not processable by thin_restore(8), so don't try it 🙅‍♀️):

$ thin_dump --format human_readable --metadata-snap /dev/vg/metadata

✨ DIAGNOSTICS ✨

so thin_dump returns an exit code of 0 if it succeeds, or 1 if there's an error 🚦

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

your besties to look up next 🫶: thin_check(8), thin_repair(8), thin_restore(8), thin_rmap(8), thin_metadata_size(8) 🧚

✨ AUTHOR ✨

written by Joe Thornber <ejt@redhat.com> and Heinz Mauelshagen <HeinzM@RedHat.com> 💖

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that's a wrap, bestie!! 🌈💅✨ this was the System Manager's Manual page for thin_dump(8), from the Device Mapper Tools collection 🎀 ily, go be a main character 👑🦋