Bug 425764

Prefix every command with 'lvm' or 'lvm.static' to run it, like 'lvm.static pvs'.

'lvm dumpconfig' produces no output if it does not find a configuration file.

(Can set environment variable LVM_SYSTEM_DIR to provide alternative location for
the '/etc/lvm' directory.)

Thanks; I thought I tried "lvm pvs", but perhaps I didn't try with lvm.static. Why doesn't lvm.static by itself 
give me an LVM shell, as the manual page says it should?

The various manual pages (pvs, lvdisplay, etc.) should have notes explaining how to use them as suffixes.

"lvm pvs" works as expected from RHEL 5.1 rescue mode (rescue boot CD).

lvm binaries are static (lvm is symlink to lvm.static) and are compiled without
subshell support.

Anyway, you can run "lvm help" to show available commands, command agruments are
exactly the same like if using directly 
(IOW: "lvm pvs <args>" = "pvs <Args>" etc. Try u.e. "lvm pvs --help")

But the documentation tells people to use 'pvs', etc., and this doesn't work in rescue mode. Either the 
manual pages should have a NOTE or BUGS, telling people the alternate invocation in rescue mode, or the 
thinks like 'pvs' should at least produce a message telling people to preced with 'lvm ', or the 
documentation should describe the 'lvm ' prefix so the documented commands are usable in all 
environments.

Which documentation for rescue mode doesn't mention this?  Raise an 
enhancement request against whichever package supplies that.

The lvm(8) man page does cover this:
   SYNOPSIS
      lvm [command | file]
then goes on to explain the shortcut if you have links to it with different 
command names.

Regarding lvm.static, that is deprecated and should disappear from 
fedora/RHEL6 as soon as the right people find time to update 
mkinitrd/initscripts etc. not to use it any more.

If I knew the required command invocation syntax was different in rescue mode, I wouldn't have needed the manual page! ;)

The lvm subcommand manual pages under RHEL5, such as pvs(8), do not mention the "lvm " prefix.

[root@hinfo ~]# man pvs|cat
PVS(8)                                                                  PVS(8)



NAME
       pvs - report information about physical volumes

SYNOPSIS
       pvs  [--aligned]  [-d/--debug]  [-h/-?/--help] [--ignorelockingfailure]
       [--noheadings] [--nosuffix] [-o/--options [+]Field[,Field]]  [-O/--sort
       [+/-]Key1[,[+/-]Key2[,...]]]   [--separator  Separator]  [--unbuffered]
       [--units  hsbkmgtHKMGT]  [-v/--verbose]   [--version]   [PhysicalVolume
       [PhysicalVolume...]]

DESCRIPTION
       pvs produces formatted output about physical volumes.

OPTIONS
       See lvm for common options.

       --aligned
              Use with --separator to align the output columns.

       --noheadings
              Suppress  the  headings  line that is normally the first line of
              output.  Useful if grepping the output.

       --nosuffix
              Suppress the suffix on output sizes.  Use with --units (except h
              and H) if processing the output.

       -o, --options
              Comma-separated  ordered list of columns.  Precede the list with
              ’+’ to append to the default selection of columns.  Column names
              are:  pv_fmt,  pv_uuid,  pv_size,  dev_size,  pv_free,  pv_used,
              pv_name, pv_attr, pv_pe_count, pv_pe_alloc_count, pv_tags.   The
              "pv_" prefix is optional.  Columns mentioned in vgs (8) can also
              be chosen. The pv_attr bits are: (a)llocatable and e(x)ported.

       -O, --sort
              Comma-separated ordered list of columns to  sort  by.   Replaces
              the  default  selection. Precede any column with - for a reverse
              sort on that column.

       --separator Separator
              String to use to separate each column.  Useful if  grepping  the
              output.

       --unbuffered
              Produce  output  immediately  without  sorting  or  aligning the
              columns properly.

       --units hsbkmgtHKMGT
              All  sizes  are  output  in   these   units:   (h)uman-readable,
              (s)ectors,   (b)ytes,   (k)ilobytes,  (m)egabytes,  (g)igabytes,
              (t)erabytes.  Capitalise to use multiples of 1000 (S.I.) instead
              of 1024.  Can also specify custom (u)nits e.g.  --units 3M

SEE ALSO
       pvdisplay(8), lvs(8), vgs(8)



Sistina Software UK                LVM TOOLS                            PVS(8)

The ref to lvm(8) is missing in the SEE ALSO section there.  Will fix.

So "See lvm for common options" isn't enough, and the man pages should also 
say something like "This man page include information that is specific to the 
pvs command.  For general information about the LVM2 toolset see lvm (8)." ?

Or "This man page should be read in conjunction with lvm (8)."

A SEE ALSO reference and "This man page should be read in conjunction with lvm(8)." would be good. 
Even better if you say something in pvs(8) (and all the other subcommand pages) to tip off readers that 
"pvs" == "lvm pvs", but not absolutely necessary.