---
name: "nvme-id-primary-ctrl-caps"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "nvme-cli"
version: "3.2-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/nvme-id-primary-ctrl-caps"
---

# nvme-id-primary-ctrl-caps(1)

Send identify Primary Controller Caps, return result and structure

## NAME

nvme-id-primary-ctrl-caps - Send identify Primary Controller Caps, return result and structure

## SYNOPSIS

```
nvme [<global-options>] id primary-ctrl-caps <device>
```

## DESCRIPTION

For the NVMe device given, sends an identify primary Controller caps command and provides the result and returned structure.

The \<device\> parameter is mandatory and may be either the NVMe character device (ex: /dev/nvme0), or a namespace block device (ex: /dev/nvme0n1).

On success, the structure may be returned in one of several ways depending on the option flags; the structure may be parsed by the program or the raw buffer may be printed to stdout.

## OPTIONS

## GLOBAL OPTIONS

The following options are defined at the top-level nvme command and are available to this subcommand:

- \--dry-run

  Print the command that would be executed, but do not actually execute it.

- \--no-ioctl-probing

  Disable probing for 64-bit IOCTL support.

- \--no-retries

  Disable retry logic on transient errors.

- \-o \<fmt\>, --output-format=\<fmt\>

  Set the reporting format to *normal*, *tabular, 'json*, or *binary*. Only one output format may be used at a time.

- \--output-format-version=\<version\>

  Select the output format version. Version *1* uses the original field naming, while version *2* (default) provides more consistent and script-friendly field names. Other versions are rejected.

- \--quiet

  Suppress informational messages. Errors are still reported, and --quiet cancels any --verbose for the library log level.

- \--set-options=\<key=value\>\[,\<key=value\>...\]

  Set libnvme library options for this invocation. Supported keys are *force-4k*, *mi-probe-enabled*, *test-base-dir* and *test-sysfs-dir*.

- \--timeout=\<ms\>

  Set the timeout for the command in milliseconds. *infinite* or *-1* waits without a time limit (0xffffffff).

- \-v, --verbose

  Increase the level of detail in the output. May be specified multiple times to further increase verbosity.

These options can also be set as machine-wide defaults in [nvme-cli.conf(5)](/nvme-cli.conf/5.md). A command-line flag always overrides the file.

## EXAMPLES

• Get Primary Ctrl Caps of the device in default format

```
# nvme id primary-ctrl-caps /dev/nvme0
```

• Has the program interpret the returned buffer and display the known fields in a human readable format:

```
# nvme id primary-ctrl-caps /dev/nvme0 --verbose
# nvme id primary-ctrl-caps /dev/nvme0 -v
```

## NVME

Part of the nvme-user suite