---
name: "jcat"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "sleuthkit"
version: "4.15.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/jcat"
---

# jcat(1)

Show the contents of a block in the file system journal.

## NAME

jcat - Show the contents of a block in the file system journal.

## SYNOPSIS

**jcat \[-f** *fstype* **\] \[-vV\] \[-i imgtype\] \[-o imgoffset\] \[-b dev\_sector\_size\]** *image \[images\]* **\] \[** *inode* **\]** *jblk*

## DESCRIPTION

**jcat** shows the contents of a journal block in the file system journal.  The  inode address of the journal can be given or the default location will be used.  Note that the block address is a journal block address and not a file system block.  The raw output is given to STDOUT.

## ARGUMENTS

- \-f fstype

  Specify the file system type. Use '-f list' to list the supported file system types. If not given, autodetection methods are used.

- \-i imgtype

  Identify the type of image file, such as raw. Use '-i list' to list the supported types. If not given, autodetection methods are used.

- \-o imgoffset

  The sector offset where the file system starts in the image.

- \-b dev\_sector\_size

  The size, in bytes, of the underlying device sectors.  If not given, the value in the image format is used (if it exists) or 512-bytes is assumed.

- \-V

  Display version

- \-v

  verbose output

- image \[images\]

  The disk or partition image to read, whose format is given with '-i'. Multiple image file names can be given if the image is split into multiple segments. If only one image file is given, and its name is the first in a sequence (e.g., as indicated by ending in '.001'), subsequent image segments will be included automatically.

- \[inode\]

  The inode where the file system journal can be found.

- jblk

  The journal block to display.

## EXAMPLES

jcat -f linux-ext3 img.dd 34 \| xxd

## AUTHOR

Brian Carrier \<carrier at sleuthkit dot org\>

Send documentation updates to \<doc-updates at sleuthkit dot org\>