Linux provides us with a lot of tools to manage disks. These tools allow us to view disk usage and partition the drive.

Report Disk Space Usage

Here are some common options for du command:

Option	Description
-h or ‑‑human-readable	Show human readable size format.
-s or ‑‑summarize	Size of the specified directory only.

                    
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                          du [OPTION]

Estimate File Space Usage

Here are some common options for df command:

Option	Description
-h or ‑‑human-readable	Show human readable size format.
-i or ‑‑inodes	Show inodes instead of blocks.
-l or ‑‑local	Show local file related information.
-P or ‑‑portability	Show in POSIX style, keep in same line.
-T or ‑‑print-type	Show filesystem type.

                    
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                          df [OPTION]

List Block Devices

We can use lsblk command to list block devices:

Show Partitions

We can output all the partitions through the /proc/partitions file:

                    
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                          cat /proc/partitions

Change or Show an ext{2|3|4} Filesystem Label

Show device’s label:

                    
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                          e2label device

Change device’s label:

                    
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                          e2label device label

Dump an ext{2|3|4} Filesystem Information

Here are some common options for dumpe2fs command:

Option	Description
-h	Show super block details.

                    
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                          dumpe2fs [OPTION] device

Adjust ext{2|3|4} Filesystem Tunable Parameters

Here are some common options for tune2fs command:

Option	Description
-c #	Adjust the self-check behavior after the # mount amount,0 or -1 means disable the function.
-i #	Adjust the self-check behavior after # days of the mount usage.
-j	Adjust disk from ext2 to ext3, this can be reversed, but this doesn’t hurt the existing data.
-l	Show super block details.
-L LABEL	Change disk label.
-m	Adjust remaining percentage for super user.
-o OPTION(acl or ^acl)	Adjust default mount point.
-r	Adjust remaining blocks.

                    
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                          tune2fs [OPTION] device

Show locate/print block device attributes

Here are some common options for blkid command:

Option	Description
-i or ‑‑info	Show I/O Limits (aka I/O topology) information
-k or ‑‑list-filesystems	Show all known filesystems and RAIDs.
-L LABEL or ‑‑label LABEL	Look for devices according to LABEL.
-U UUID or ‑‑uuid UUID	Look for devices according to UUID.

                    
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                          blkid [OPTION] device

Check and Repair a Linux Filesystem

Here are some common options for fsck command:

Option	Description
-t FSTYPE	Specify a file system type.
-a	Repair automatically.

                    
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                          fsck [OPTION] device

Repair an XFS Filesystem

Check a Linux ext{2|3|4} Filesystem

Here are some common options for e2fsck command:

Option	Description
-f	Force inspecting.
-p	Repair automatically.

                    
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                          e2fsck [OPTION] device

Manipulate Disk Partition Table

Here are some common options for fdisk command:

Option	Description
-l or ‑‑list	List device’s partition tables, if no device is given, then output /proc/partitions instead.

Here are some common command for fdisk command when creating partition:

Option	Description
d	Delete a partition.
l	Show supported types.
n	Create partition, e: extended partition, p: primary partition. +NG(Number of GigaBytes), +NM(Number of MegaBytes), +NK(Number of KiloBytes), +N(Number of Bytes)
p	Show disk partition, include the pending one.
q	Exit without saving the operations.
t	Edit partition type.
w	Save before exit.

                    
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                          fdisk [OPTION] device

Manipulate GUID Partition Tables

Manipulate Disk Partitions

Here are some common options for parted command:

Option	Description
-l or ‑‑list	Show all block devices’ partition layout.

                    
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                          parted [OPTION] [device]

Inform the System of Partition Table Changes

Build a Linux Filesystem

Here are some common options for mkfs command:

Option	Description
-b BLOCKSIZE	Specify the block size, by default is 4096, available options are 1024, 2048 or 4096.
-E	User specified extra file system attributes.
-i #	Specify the byte spaces per inode, by default is 8192, this value must be the block size to the second power.
-L LABEL	Specify partition label.
-m #	Specify remaining percentage for super user.
-N #	Specify inode quantity.
-t FSTYPE	FSTYPE can be either ext2, ext3, ext4 or xfs. This is equivalent to mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3, mkfs.ext4, mkfs.xfs.

Create an ext{2|3|4} Filesystem

Here are some common options for mke2fs command:

Option	Description
-b BLOCKSIZE	Specify the block size, by default is 4096, available options are 1024, 2048 or 4096.
-i #	Specify the byte spaces per inode, by default is 8192, this value must be the block size to the second power.
-j	Create ext3 file system.
-L LABEL	Specify partition label.
-m #	Specify remaining percentage for super user.
-N #	Specify inode quantity.
-O FEATURE:	Create with the given features.
-t FSTYPE	Can be either ext2, ext3 or ext4.

Mount a Filesystem

Here are some common options for mount command:

Option	Description
-a	Mount all file systems defined in /etc/fstab file.
-n	Stop appending devices’ details to /etc/mtab file.
-o	Specify additional mount device options, it is, the file systems’ enabled attributes, use comma for multiple options.
-r	Read only mount, usually used for compact disc (CD).
-t FSTYPE	Specify device’s file system type, mount will call blkid to identify the type by default.
-w	Read write mount.

Show all mounted devices by default, append mounted device’s detail to /etc/mtab file by default.

                    
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                          mount [device] [mountpoint]

Unmount Filesystems

Here are some common options for umount command:

Option	Description
-n or ‑‑no-mtab	Unmount without writing in /etc/mtab file.

                    
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                          umount [OPTION] [device]

Check Mounted Devices

                    
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                          cat /proc/mounts
# OR
cat /etc/mtab

Check Processes Using Files or Sockets

Here are some common options for fuser command:

Option	Description
-k	Terminates all processes that are using the specified file or directory.
-m	Lists all processes that are using the specified mount point.
-km	Terminates all processes that are using the specified mount point.
-v	View the process.

                    
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                          fuser [OPTION]

List Opened Files

Create a Swap Area

Here are some common options for mkswap command:

Option	Description
-c or ‑‑check	Check the block device for bad blocks before creating the swap area.
-L or ‑‑label	Specify a label for the device.
-U or ‑‑uuid	Specify the UUID to use. The default behavior is to generate a UUID.

                    
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                          mkswap [OPTION] device [SIZE]

Enable or Disable Devices and Files for Paging and Swapping

Here are some common options for swapon command:

Option	Description
-a or ‑‑all	All swap devices defined in the /etc/fstab file.
-L or ‑‑label	The label of the partition.
-s or ‑‑summary	Show swap usage summary, cat /proc/swaps is equivalent.

                    
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                          swapon [OPTION] [file]
swapoff [-a]

Static Information About the Filesystems

Here are /etc/fstab file’s fields definitions

Field	Description
First	Device name, LABEL, UUID, pseudo file systems(proc, tmpfs, sysfs).
Second	Mount point, swap is the mount point of swap device.
Third	File system type.
Fourth	Mount point option, defaults means default options, multiple options(default,noauto,user, owner, nofail).
Fifth	Dump frequency, 0(no backup), 1(backup everyday), 2(backup every other day)
Sixth	Check file system, 0(no self-check), 1(self-test first), 2(secondary self-test).

Make Block or Character Special Files

Here are some common options for mknod command:

Option	Description
-m MODE or ‑‑mode=MODE	Set file permission bits to MODE.

Here are some TYPEs for mknod command:

Option	Description
b	Block (buffered) special file, MAJOR and MINOR must be specified.
c, u	Character (unbuffered) special file, MAJOR and MINOR must be specified.
p	FIFO, MAJOR and MINOR must be omitted.

                    
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                          mknod [OPTION] TYPE [MAJOR MINOR]

Copy a File

                    
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                          dd if=data_source of=target bs=block_size count=block_amount

Backup Disk MBR

                    
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                          dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/usb/mbr.backup bs=512 count1

Recover Disk MBR

                    
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                          dd if=/mnt/usb/mbr.backup of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

Create Virtual Compact Disc

                    
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                          cat /dev/cdrom > /root/compact_disc.iso

A Worse Performance Swap Space

                    
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                          free -m
dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/swapfile bs=1M count=2014
mkswap /var/swapfile
free -m

Display File Contents in Hexadecimal, Decimal, Octal, or ASCII

Here are some common options for mknod command:

Option	Description
-b or ‑‑one-byte-octal	One-byte octal display.
-c or ‑‑one-byte-char	One-byte character display.
-C or ‑‑canonical	Canonical hex+ASCII display.
-d or ‑‑two-bytes-decimal	Two-byte decimal display.
-x or ‑‑two-bytes-hex	Two-byte hexadecimal display.

                    
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                          hexdump [OPTION] file

References DF(1), DU(1), LSBLK(8), E2LABEL(8), DUMPE2FS(8), TUNE2FS(8), BLKID(8), FSCK(8), xfs_repair(8), E2FSCK(8), FDISK(8), GDISK, PARTED(8), PARTPROBE(8), MKFS(8), MKE2FS(8), MOUNT(8), UMOUNT(8), FUSER(1), LSOF(8), MKSWAP(8), SWAPON(8), FSTAB(5), MKNOD(1), DD(1), HEXDUMP(1)

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