Identity

Property	Value
Binary	`dmesg`
Config	No persistent config — invoked directly
Logs	Kernel ring buffer (volatile, lost on reboot); persistent history in `/var/log/kern.log` or via `journalctl -k`
Type	CLI tool (part of util-linux)
Install	`apt install util-linux` / `dnf install util-linux` (installed by default on all distributions)

Key Operations

Task	Command
Show all kernel messages	`dmesg`
Human-readable timestamps (wall clock)	`dmesg -T`
Follow new messages as they arrive	`dmesg -W`
Filter to errors and warnings only	`dmesg --level err,warn`
Filter to kernel facility only	`dmesg --facility kern`

Related skills