---
name: "dumpe2fs"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "e2fsprogs"
version: "1.47.4-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dumpe2fs"
---

# dumpe2fs(8)

dump ext2/ext3/ext4 file system information

## NAME

dumpe2fs - dump ext2/ext3/ext4 file system information

## SYNOPSIS

**dumpe2fs** \[ **-bfghixV** \] \[ **-o superblock=*superblock*** \] \[ **-o blocksize=*blocksize*** \] *device*

## DESCRIPTION

**dumpe2fs** prints the super block and blocks group information for the file system present on *device.*

The *device* specifier can either be a filename (i.e., /dev/sda1), or a LABEL or UUID specifier: "**LABEL=***volume-label*" or "**UUID=***uuid*".  (i.e., LABEL=home or UUID=e40486c6-84d5-4f2f-b99c-032281799c9d).

**Note:** When used with a mounted file system, the printed information may be old or inconsistent.

## OPTIONS

- **-b**

  print the blocks which are reserved as bad in the file system.

- **-o superblock=*superblock***

  use the block *superblock* when examining the file system. This option is not usually needed except by a file system wizard who is examining the remains of a very badly corrupted file system.

- **-o blocksize=*blocksize***

  use blocks of *blocksize* bytes when examining the file system. This option is not usually needed except by a file system wizard who is examining the remains of a very badly corrupted file system.

- **-f**

  force dumpe2fs to display a file system even though it may have some file system feature flags which dumpe2fs may not understand (and which can cause some of dumpe2fs's display to be suspect).

- **-g**

  display the group descriptor information in a machine readable colon-separated value format.  The fields displayed are the group number; the number of the first block in the group; the superblock location (or -1 if not present); the range of blocks used by the group descriptors (or -1 if not present); the block bitmap location; the inode bitmap location; and the range of blocks used by the inode table.

- **-h**

  only display the superblock information and not any of the block group descriptor detail information.

- **-i**

  display the file system data from an image file created by **e2image**, using *device* as the pathname to the image file.

- **-m**

  If the **mmp** feature is enabled on the file system, check if *device* is in use by another node, see [**e2mmpstatus**(8)](/e2mmpstatus/8.md) for full details.  If used together with the **-i** option, only the MMP block information is printed.

- **-x**

  print the detailed group information block numbers in hexadecimal format

- **-V**

  print the version number of **dumpe2fs** and exit.

## EXIT CODE

**dumpe2fs** exits with a return code of 0 if the operation completed without errors. It will exit with a non-zero return code if there are any errors, such as problems reading a valid superblock, bad checksums, or if the device is in use by another node and **-m** is specified.

## BUGS

You may need to know the physical file system structure to understand the output.

## AUTHOR

**dumpe2fs** was written by Remy Card \<Remy.Card@linux.org\>.  It is currently being maintained by Theodore Ts'o \<tytso@alum.mit.edu\>.

## AVAILABILITY

**dumpe2fs** is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available from http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net.

## SEE ALSO

[**e2fsck**(8)](/e2fsck/8.md), [**e2mmpstatus**(8)](/e2mmpstatus/8.md), [**mke2fs**(8)](/mke2fs/8.md), [**tune2fs**(8)](/tune2fs/8.md). [**ext4**(5)](/ext4/5.md)