GEOM(8)                 FreeBSD System Manager's Manual                GEOM(8)

NAME

     geom - universal control utility for GEOM classes

SYNOPSIS

     geom class help
     geom [--libxo] class list [-a] [name ...]
     geom [--libxo] class status [-ags] [name ...]
     geom class load [-v]
     geom class unload [-v]
     geom -p provider-name
     geom -t

DESCRIPTION

     The geom utility is used to control various GEOM classes.  A class has to
     be aware of geom communication methods, but there are also some standard
     commands which can be used for existing geom unaware classes.  Here is
     the list of standard commands:

     help    List all available commands for the given class.

     list    Print detailed information (within the given class) about all
             geoms (if no additional arguments were specified) or the given
             geoms.  This command is only available if the given class exists
             in the kernel.  Additional options include:

             -a  Print information for geoms without providers.

     status  Print general information (within the given class) about all
             geoms (if no additional arguments were specified) or the given
             geoms.  This command is only available if the given class exists
             in the kernel.

             Additional options include:

             -a  When used with -g, print status for geoms without providers.

             -g  Report statuses for geoms instead of providers.

             -s  Produce script-friendly output.

     load    Load the kernel module that implements the given class.  This
             command is only available if the class does not yet exist in the
             kernel and the file geom_<class>.ko can be found in one of the
             directories specified in kern.module_path sysctl.

     unload  Unload the kernel module which implements the given class.  This
             command is only available if the given class is loaded as a
             kernel module.

     Additional options include:

     -p provider-name
             Print detailed information about the geom which provides
             provider-name.

     -t      Display geoms hierarchy as a tree.

     --libxo
             Generate output via libxo(3) in a selection of different human
             and machine readable formats.  See xo_options(7) for details on
             command line arguments.

     Class-specific commands are implemented as shared libraries which are
     stored in /lib/geom/ directory and are loaded via dlopen(3) function when
     the class name is known.  When a class-specific shared library exists, a
     direct utility should also be available under the name of gclass.

     Currently, classes aware of geom are:

           o CACHE        o MIRROR       o SCHED
           o CONCAT       o MOUNTVER     o SHSEC
           o DISK         o MULTIPATH    o STRIPE
           o ELI          o NOP          o UNION
           o JOURNAL      o PART         o VFS
           o LABEL        o RAID         o VIRSTOR
           o MD           o RAID3

ENVIRONMENT

     The following environment variables affect the execution of geom:

     GEOM_LIBRARY_PATH  Specifies the path where shared libraries are stored
                        instead of /lib/geom/.  Multiple paths can be
                        specified with a colon-separated list of paths.

EXIT STATUS

     Exit status is 0 on success, and 1 if the command fails.

EXAMPLES

     The following example shows how to set up a stripe on three disks for
     automatic configuration:

           geom stripe label -v -s 65536 data /dev/da0 /dev/da1 /dev/da2

     or:

           gstripe label -v -s 65536 data /dev/da0 /dev/da1 /dev/da2

     Print the list of all providers from the DISK class:

           geom disk list

     Unload a kernel module which implements the MD class:

           geom md unload

SEE ALSO

     libgeom(3), geom(4), xo_options(7), gcache(8), gconcat(8), geli(8),
     gjournal(8), glabel(8), gmirror(8), gmountver(8), gmultipath(8), gnop(8),
     gpart(8), graid3(8), gshsec(8), gstripe(8), gunion(8), gvirstor(8)

HISTORY

     The geom utility appeared in FreeBSD 5.3.

AUTHORS

     Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd@FreeBSD.org>

FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD       February 5, 2026                        GEOM(8)