vg attributes (vg_attr) in vgs program don't seem to match the man page

The explanation of the attribute bits printed by the program "vgs" in the man page are as follows:

The vg_attr bits are: (w)riteable, (r)ead only, resi(z)eable, e(x)ported, (p)artial and (c)lustered.

However "vgs" on my debian Etch system prints out this way:

wz--n-

LVM version: 2.02.07 (2006-07-17)
Library version: 1.02.12 (2006-10-13)
Driver version: 4.7.0

Could someone please explain to me what the "n" stands for and which columns get the other bits. I am trying to write a parser for this output.

Thank you.

...

See lib/report/report.c in sources for exact description,

Short overview
(note that some attributes are used for hidden volumes only which are parts of snapshot, mirror, etc...)

PV attributes
a-

|`- exported (vg) [x|-]
`-- allocatable [a|-]

VG attributes

wz--n-

|||||`- clustered [c|-]
||||`-- allocation policy (c)ontiguous,(C)ling,(n)ormal,(a)nywhere,(i)nherit
|||`--- partial vg [p|-]
||`---- exported vg [x|-]
|`----- resizeable vg [z|-]
`------ writable [w|r]

LV attributes

-wi-a-

|||||`- open [o|-]
||||`-- (s)uspended,(a)ctive,(i)nactive((d)without mapping table),
||||    (I)nvalid snapshot, invalid (S)uspended snapshot [s|a|i|d|S|I]
|||`--- fixed minor [m|-]
||`---- allocation policy (if locked ->capitalized) [c|C|n|a|i]
|`----- writable (in pvmove '-') [w|r|-]
`------ type: (p)vmoved, (m)irrored ((M) not synced), mirror (i)mage,(l)og,
                (v)irtual, snapshot (o)rigin/(s)cow [p|m|M|i|l|v|o|s|-]

Milan
--
[email protected]

Thank you. Now I am off to see what (C)ling means.

See 'man lvm' (if your version is new enough to support it).

Alasdair

[email protected]

<From the LVM2.2.02.24 source>
The following lines in report.c seems to show that (c) will become (C) if the lv is locked:

	repstr[2] = _alloc_policy_char(lv->alloc);

        	if (lv->status & LOCKED)
                	repstr[2] = toupper(repstr[2]);

That is also what the man page claims. However the start of report.c show this:

 switch (alloc) {
        case ALLOC_CONTIGUOUS:
                return 'c';
        case ALLOC_CLING:
                return 'C';
        case ALLOC_NORMAL:
                return 'n';
        case ALLOC_ANYWHERE:
                return 'a';
        default:
                return 'i';
        }

Isn't that a conflict, or am I reading this wrong? BTW I am not a professional programmer nor do I play one on TV.

Hi,

...

...

It's a bug.
I added the cling allocation policy and assigned 'C' to it without checking the capitalization part of the report function... Thanks for finding it.

Alasdair,
Sorry about this bug.
IMO, 'C' for ALLOC_CLING should be changed to other letter since it's added after the capitalization.
It inevitably introduces possible compatibility issues for existing user of attr field, however.

Thanks,

Jun'ichi Nomura, NEC Corporation of America

Dear Group,

I don't have any idea what happened. Yesterdany after routine power on which is scheduled for my machine twice a day (power saving), LVM2 volumes were not detected by system. For security system all data of critical importance are stored on separate software raid (mdm), managed by LVM2 driver. I wonder how to recover the data.

What system said during boot up procedure:

Fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/mapper/pv-zasoby1
/dev/mapper/pv-zasoby1:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
E2fsck -b 8193 <device>
(...)
The same info was displayed about the other pv created volumes. (...)
Fsck died with exit status 8 [fail]

* File system check failed
A log is being saved in /var/log/fsck/checkfs if that location is writable. Please repair the file system manually.

Please repair the file system manually

* A maintenance shell will now be started.
CONTROL-D will terminate this shell and resume system boot. Give root password for maintenance (or type Control-D to continue)

Some info about my system:

maciej@gucek2:~$ sudo lvmdiskscan
Password:
    Logging initialised at Mon Mar 26 23:03:53 2007

Set umask to 0077
Wiping cache of LVM-capable devices

  /dev/ram0      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/md0       [       74,53 GB] LVM physical volume
  /dev/evms/hde1 [      101,94 MB]
  /dev/ram1      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/hde1      [      101,94 MB]
  /dev/evms/hde2 [        1,87 GB]
  /dev/ram2      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/hde2      [        1,87 GB]
  /dev/evms/hde3 [       24,99 GB]
  /dev/ram3      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/hde3      [       24,99 GB]
  /dev/evms/hde4 [       28,94 GB]
  /dev/ram4      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/hde4      [       28,94 GB]
  /dev/ram5      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram6      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram7      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram8      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram9      [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram10     [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram11     [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram12     [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram13     [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram14     [       64,00 MB]
  /dev/ram15     [       64,00 MB]

0 disks
24 partitions
0 LVM physical volume whole disks
1 LVM physical volume
Wiping internal VG cache

maciej@gucek2:~$ sudo vgdisplay
    Logging initialised at Mon Mar 26 23:04:38 2007

Set umask to 0077
Finding all volume groups
Finding volume group "sys"
--- Volume group ---
VG Name sys
System ID

  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  1
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                0
  Open LV               0
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               74,53 GB
  PE Size               4,00 MB
  Total PE              19079
  Alloc PE / Size       0 / 0
  Free  PE / Size       19079 / 74,53 GB
  VG UUID               l8ADwh-VTnb-qJa1-3Vdg-CX1J-TaSK-kp3nNY

Wiping internal VG cache

lvm> version
LVM version: 2.02.06 (2006-05-12)
Library version: 1.02.07 (2006-05-11)
Driver version: 4.6.0

maciej@gucek2:~$ uname -r
2.6.17-11-386

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options>
<dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults
0 0

# /dev/hde3 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
UUID=d6738631-13a8-4593-a89b-b51803d16ee3 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro
0 1
# /dev/hde1 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
UUID=87fecd19-1110-46b1-be4c-4f8c20370bee /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/mapper/pv-boot     /media/mapper_pv-boot    ext3          defaults
0       2
/dev/mapper/pv-home     /media/mapper_pv-home    ext3          defaults
0       2
/dev/mapper/pv-root     /media/mapper_pv-root    ext3          defaults
0       2
/dev/mapper/pv-zasoby1  /media/mapper_pv-zasoby1 ext3          defaults
0       2
/dev/mapper/pv-zasoby2  /media/mapper_pv-zasoby2 ext3          defaults
0       2
# /dev/hde2 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
UUID=2eddb05e-61a2-4639-9cd3-0c4ab948abd3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/mapper/pv-swap     none                     swap          sw
0       0
/dev/hda                /media/cdrom0            udf,iso9660   user,noauto
0       0
/dev/hdc                /media/cdrom1            udf,iso9660   user,noauto
0       0

I tried to do vgcfgrestore as I have backup and archive subfolders in /etc/lvm:

maciej@gucek2:~$ sudo vgcfgrestore -f /etc/lvm/archive/pv_00000.vg -n pv0
/dev/md0 -t
Password:
    Logging initialised at Mon Mar 26 23:20:00 2007

Set umask to 0077
Test mode: Metadata will NOT be updated.
Wiping cache of LVM-capable devices
Couldn't find device with uuid 'z93Y68-sV42-coHo-5RxV-WnC8-UFhj-D490Jn'. Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group pv. Restore failed.
Test mode: Wiping internal cache
Wiping internal VG cache
Wiping internal VG cache

I've no idea what to do next. Please give detailed clues, if possible.

Kind regards,
Maciej S�ojewski (mslonik)

I'm guessing that this line:
Couldn't find device with uuid
'z93Y68-sV42-coHo-5RxV-WnC8-UFhj-D490Jn'.
is your md device for your missing filesystem
volume, /dev/mapper/pv-zasoby1?

Your lvm backups (look for the latest one in /etc/lvm/backup) should confirm whether this is the case. If it is, find out why that md device isn't being created (maybe a disk didn't come up?)