{
  "slug": "physical-volume",
  "term": "Physical volume (LVM)",
  "aliases": [
    "LVM physical volume",
    "PV"
  ],
  "definition": "In Linux LVM, a physical volume is a block device initialized for LVM use whose allocatable extents can supply a volume group.",
  "note": "A PV can use a whole device or a partition. pvcreate writes an LVM label and configures metadata areas; it does not create a filesystem. The name therefore does not imply an entire physical disk. [pvcreate]\n\nA PV may be configured with zero VG metadata copies. Its allocatable data area and its metadata configuration are separate properties; do not assume every PV carries a copy of the group's configuration. [pvcreate]\n\nResizing the underlying device does not by itself update LVM's recorded PV size. pvresize changes that size and refuses a shrink if allocated extents remain beyond the proposed end. Filesystem free space alone does not establish that those physical extents are unallocated. [pvresize]",
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [
    {
      "text": "Initializing a PV writes to the selected device; it is not a read-only discovery operation.",
      "citationIds": [
        "pvcreate"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "updated": "2026-10-20",
  "related": [
    "lvm",
    "volume-group",
    "logical-volume",
    "block-storage",
    "partition-alignment"
  ],
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "pvcreate",
      "title": "LVM2 pvcreate(8): PV initialization and metadata-copy configuration",
      "url": "https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/pvcreate.8.html",
      "accessed": "2026-10-20"
    },
    {
      "id": "pvresize",
      "title": "LVM2 pvresize(8): device-size changes and allocated-extent shrink check",
      "url": "https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/pvresize.8.html",
      "accessed": "2026-10-20"
    }
  ]
}