wipefs:tldr:788a0

The command sudo wipefs --all --no-act ${-dev-sdX} is used to display information about filesystems or signatures on a device without actually modifying them. Let's break it down:

• sudo: This command is used in Linux systems to execute a command with administrative or superuser privileges. It allows the user to run commands as another user, usually the root user.

• wipefs: It is a command-line utility used to erase filesystem, RAID, or partition-table signatures from a device. It can also be used to display information about the signatures present on a device. In this case, we are using it to display information and not perform any actual wiping.

• --all: This option tells wipefs to look for all signatures on the specified device. It will examine all partitions and filesystems present on the device.

• --no-act: This option makes wipefs operate in read-only mode. It will display information about the signatures found on the device but won't actually modify them. It's useful for checking the existing signatures before performing any wiping operation.

• ${-dev-sdX}: This is a placeholder notation to represent the device. In practice, you would replace ${-dev-sdX} with the path to the specific device you want to analyze, for example, /dev/sda or /dev/sdb. The -dev-sdX is a generic indicator for a block device, and the actual device name can vary depending on your system configuration.

Putting it all together, the command sudo wipefs --all --no-act ${-dev-sdX} with the device path specified will display information about the existing filesystem or other signatures on the specified device without making any changes to them.