[linux-lvm] Characters allowed for vg name

[Alasdair G Kergon]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 01:47:57PM -0000, Gerrard Geldenhuis wrote:
> I did report it as a bug via Redhat support. I have ended up pasting the
> mailinglist response in the support ticket after a week of no positive
> response.

Sorry for that: If you send me the ticket number privately I'll see that it's
progressed.

> Would you aggree that a short note about allowable names should be added
> to man lvm? If yes, then I don't mind creating a patch.

Here's a current summary of the rules (as added to bug 430907).


The characters allowed in VG and
LV names are:  a-z A-Z 0-9 + _ . -

Neither a VG nor an LV can begin with a hyphen.

There are also various reserved names.

A VG cannot be called anything that appears in 'ls /dev' at the time it is
created (including '.' and '..' of course).

An LV can also not be called '.' or '..'.
A new LV cannot begin with the strings 'snapshot' or 'pvmove'.
It may not contain the strings '_mlog' or '_mimage'.
Additional reserved strings are likely to be added over time.

Pre-existing LVs may be found with these names, and the tools will normally cope
adequately.  (Internally-generated LVs do use these reserved names - that's why
they are reserved.)



Alasdair
-- 
agk at redhat.com