LOSETUP(8) System Administration LOSETUP(8)
NAME
losetup - set up and control loop devices
SYNOPSIS
Get info:
losetup [loopdev]
losetup -l [-a]
losetup -j file [-o offset]
Detach a loop device:
losetup -d loopdev ...
Detach all associated loop devices:
losetup -D
Set up a loop device:
losetup [-o offset] [--sizelimit size] [--sector-size size] [--loop-ref
name] [-Pr] [--show] -f|loopdev file
Resize a loop device:
losetup -c loopdev
DESCRIPTION
losetup is used to associate loop devices with regular files or block
devices, to detach loop devices, and to query the status of a loop
device. If only the loopdev argument is given, the status of the
corresponding loop device is shown. If no option is given, all loop
devices are shown.
Note that the old output format (i.e., losetup -a) with comma-delimited
strings is deprecated in favour of the --list output format.
It’s possible to create more independent loop devices for the same
backing file. This setup may be dangerous, can cause data loss,
corruption and overwrites. Use --nooverlap with --find during setup to
avoid this problem.
The loop device setup is not an atomic operation when used with --find,
and losetup does not protect this operation by any lock. The number of
attempts is internally restricted to a maximum of 16. It is recommended
to use for example flock(1) to avoid a collision in heavily parallel use
cases.
OPTIONS
The size and offset arguments may be followed by the multiplicative
suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB,
EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K" has the same meaning
as "KiB") or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB,
TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.
-a, --all
Show the status of all loop devices. Note that not all information
is accessible for non-root users. See also --list. The old output
format (as printed without --list) is deprecated.
-d, --detach loopdev...
Detach the file or device associated with the specified loop
device(s). Note that since Linux v3.7 kernel uses "lazy device
destruction". The detach operation does not return EBUSY error
anymore if device is actively used by system, but it is marked by
autoclear flag and destroyed later. Even if the device is not used,
the loop device can be destroyed later. If you need to wait for a
complete removal of the loop device, call udevadm settle after
losetup.
-D, --detach-all
Detach all associated loop devices.
-f, --find [file]
Find the first unused loop device. If a file argument is present,
use the found device as loop device. Otherwise, just print its name.
--show
Display the name of the assigned loop device if the -f option and a
file argument are present.
-L, --nooverlap
Check for conflicts between loop devices to avoid situation when the
same backing file is shared between more loop devices. If the file
is already used by another device then re-use the device rather than
a new one. The option makes sense only with --find.
-j, --associated file [-o offset]
Show the status of all loop devices associated with the given file.
-o, --offset offset
The data start is moved offset bytes into the specified file or
device. The offset may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes;
see above.
--loop-ref string
Set reference string. The backwardly compatible default is to use
the backing filename as a reference in loop setup ioctl (aka
lo_file_name). This option can overwrite this default behavior and
set the reference to the string. The reference may be used by udevd
in /dev/loop/by-ref. Linux kernel does not use the reference at all,
but it could be used by some old utils that cannot read the backing
file from sysfs. The reference is readable only for the root user
(see --output +REF) and it is restricted to 64 bytes.
--sizelimit size
The data end is set to no more than size bytes after the data start.
The size may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes; see above.
-b, --sector-size size
Set the logical sector size of the loop device in bytes (since Linux
4.14). The option may be used when creating a new loop device as
well as a stand-alone command to modify sector size of the already
existing loop device.
-c, --set-capacity loopdev
Force the loop driver to reread the size of the file associated with
the specified loop device.
-P, --partscan
Force the kernel to scan the partition table on a newly created loop
device. Note that the partition table parsing depends on sector
sizes. The default is sector size is 512 bytes, otherwise you need
to use the option --sector-size together with --partscan.
-r, --read-only
Set up a read-only loop device.
--direct-io[=on|off]
Enable or disable direct I/O for the backing file. The default is
off. Specifying either --direct-io or --direct-io=on will enable it.
But, --direct-io=off can be provided to explicitly turn it off.
-v, --verbose
Verbose mode.
-l, --list
If a loop device or the -a option is specified, print the default
columns for either the specified loop device or all loop devices;
the default is to print info about all devices. See also --output,
--noheadings, --raw, and --json.
-O, --output column[,column]...
Specify the columns that are to be printed for the --list output.
Use --help to get a list of all supported columns.
--output-all
Output all available columns.
-n, --noheadings
Don’t print headings for --list output format.
--raw
Use the raw --list output format.
-J, --json
Use JSON format for --list output.
ENCRYPTION
Cryptoloop is no longer supported in favor of dm-crypt. For more details
see cryptsetup(8).
EXIT STATUS
losetup returns 0 on success, nonzero on failure. When losetup displays
the status of a loop device, it returns 1 if the device is not
configured and 2 if an error occurred which prevented determining the
status of the device.
NOTES
Since version 2.37 losetup uses LOOP_CONFIGURE ioctl to setup a new loop
device by one ioctl call. The old versions use LOOP_SET_FD and
LOOP_SET_STATUS64 ioctls to do the same.
ENVIRONMENT
LOOPDEV_DEBUG=all
enables debug output.
FILES
/dev/loop[0..N]
loop block devices
/dev/loop-control
loop control device
EXAMPLE
The following commands can be used as an example of using the loop
device.
# dd if=/dev/zero of=~/file.img bs=1024k count=10
# losetup --find --show ~/file.img
/dev/loop0
# mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop0
# mount /dev/loop0 /mnt
...
# umount /dev/loop0
# losetup --detach /dev/loop0
AUTHORS
Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>, based on the original version from Theodore
Ts’o <tytso@athena.mit.edu>.
REPORTING BUGS
For bug reports, use the issue tracker
<https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.
AVAILABILITY
The losetup command is part of the util-linux package which can be
downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
<https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
util-linux 2.41 2025-02-26 LOSETUP(8)
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