dmesg Command Examples

Write the kernel messages to stdout. More information: https://manned.org/dmesg.

• Show kernel messages:

sudo dmesg

• Show kernel error messages:

sudo dmesg {{[-l|--level]}} err

• Show kernel messages and keep reading new ones, similar to tail -f (available in kernels 3.5.0 and newer):

sudo dmesg {{[-w|--follow]}}

• Show how much physical memory is available on this system:

sudo dmesg | grep {{[-i|--ignore-case]}} memory

• Show kernel messages 1 page at a time:

sudo dmesg | less

• Show kernel messages with a timestamp (available in kernels 3.5.0 and newer):

sudo dmesg {{[-T|--ctime]}}

• Show kernel messages in human-readable form (available in kernels 3.5.0 and newer):

sudo dmesg {{[-H|--human]}}

• Colorize output (available in kernels 3.5.0 and newer):

sudo dmesg {{[-L|--color]}}