How to Get the UUID of devices on Linux, Ubuntu, Debian

Unique identifier for each storage device

UUID is the "universally unique identifier" that is assigned to devices on a linux system for the purpose of identification.

For example if your hard disk has 3 partitions then each partition is a device and has a uuid. Similarly cd/dvd, usb drives etc all are assigned a uuid.

On a ubuntu system for example you might find that a partition is mounted at a location like this

/media/fc474ef9-60b7-4cf8-b42a-7feb63eeb64c/

Now the part after media/ is the uuid and used as the directory name where a certain device has been mounted. To find the uuid of devices connected to a system use the following commands

$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar  3 09:45 14348F74348F581E -> ../../sda9
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar  3 09:45 2A64794864791831 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar  3 09:45 2edfb41d-54f4-478e-8cc0-0fe9864596a8 -> ../../sda8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar  3 09:45 31a6807b-3b3e-4f9d-95c2-ead64d0c7009 -> ../../sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar  3 09:45 9de0aab4-e64c-49c8-af55-cc7375a97dd6 -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar  3 09:45 eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60 -> ../../sda7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar  3 12:20 fc474ef9-60b7-4cf8-b42a-7feb63eeb64c -> ../../sdb1

The ls command has been used to get a list of all devices along with the uuids. The big uuids are ext4 or swap type partitions. Whereas the short uuid are ntfs type partitions.

1. blkid

Another command that can be used to perform the same task is blkid. Here are some quick examples on using it.

$ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="2A64794864791831" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="9de0aab4-e64c-49c8-af55-cc7375a97dd6" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="31a6807b-3b3e-4f9d-95c2-ead64d0c7009" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda7: UUID="eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda8: UUID="2edfb41d-54f4-478e-8cc0-0fe9864596a8" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda9: UUID="14348F74348F581E" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sdb1: UUID="fc474ef9-60b7-4cf8-b42a-7feb63eeb64c" TYPE="ext4"

The output of blkid clearly shows the device, its uuid and the format type. Useful information. To get the uuid of a specific device, simply put the device name next to blkid like this

$ sudo blkid /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: UUID="2A64794864791831" TYPE="ntfs"

2. lsblk

The lsblk command is another very useful and powerful command to check details about storage devices on a system.
Here is a quick example:

$ lsblk -o PATH,SIZE,RO,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT,UUID,MODEL
PATH         SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT                   UUID                                 MODEL
/dev/loop0  96.5M  1 loop /snap/core/9436
/dev/loop1 229.6M  1 loop /snap/atom/257
/dev/loop2    55M  1 loop /snap/core18/1880
/dev/loop3  54.8M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1502
/dev/loop4 156.2M  1 loop /snap/chromium/1213
/dev/loop5    55M  1 loop /snap/core18/1754
/dev/loop6  62.1M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506
/dev/loop7 230.6M  1 loop /snap/atom/258
/dev/loop8 158.4M  1 loop /snap/chromium/1229
/dev/loop9    97M  1 loop /snap/core/9665
/dev/sda   465.8G  0 disk                                                                   Samsung_Portable_SSD_T5
/dev/sda1    420G  0 part                              757dcceb-3e17-4ca8-9ba1-b0cf68fb0134
/dev/sdb   111.8G  0 disk                                                                   Samsung_SSD_840_EVO_120GB
/dev/sdb1   95.4G  0 part /                            19d84ceb-8046-4f8d-a85a-cda49515d92c
/dev/sdc   111.8G  0 disk                                                                   Samsung_SSD_850_EVO_120GB
/dev/sdc1   95.8G  0 part                              f41b21a7-e8be-48ac-b10d-cad641bf709b
enlightened@desktop:~$

The lsblk command shows a lot of details about storage devices like mount point, device name, uuid, model name. The device name and UUID are needed when you need to mount a device to access its contents.