On my up-to-date Arch Linux, lsblk works fine without sudo:$ lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPENAME   FSTYPEsda    sda1 ext4sda2 ext4sda3 swapsda4 sda5 ext4sr0    $ lsblk --version     lsblk from util-linux 2.26.2On my Ubuntu 14.04, getting the filesystem types needs sudo:$ lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPENAME                    FSTYPEsda                     sda1                  sda2                  sda3                  sda4                  sda5                  sda6                   lvmg-homelvm (dm-0) sda7                  sdb                     sdb1                    lvmg-homelvm (dm-0) $ sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPENAME                    FSTYPEsda                     sda1                  ntfssda2                  ntfssda3                  ext4sda4                  sda5                  btrfssda6                  LVM2_member lvmg-homelvm (dm-0) btrfssda7                  swapsdb                     sdb1                  LVM2_member  lvmg-homelvm (dm-0) btrfs$ apt-cache policy util-linuxutil-linux:  Installed: 2.20.1-5.1ubuntu20.4  Candidate: 2.20.1-5.1ubuntu20.4Why? And which other columns need sudo?Additional info:On Arch:$ ls -l /dev/sd*brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Jun 19 16:19 /dev/sdabrw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 Jun 19 16:19 /dev/sda1brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 2 Jun 19 16:19 /dev/sda2brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 3 Jun 19 16:19 /dev/sda3brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 4 Jun 19 16:19 /dev/sda4brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 5 Jun 19 16:19 /dev/sda5$ groupswheel locate systemd-journal networkmanager fuse muru(My primary group is muru, not wheel, despite what the order may suggest.)On Ubuntu:$ ls -l /dev/sd*brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  0 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sdabrw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  1 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sda1brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  2 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sda2brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  3 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sda3brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  4 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sda4brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  5 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sda5brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  6 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sda6brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  7 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sda7brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 16 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sdbbrw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 17 Jun 12 17:05 /dev/sdb1$ groupsmuru adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare debian-tor libvirtd autopilotOn Arch:$ stat -c %A %U %G `which lsblk`-rwxr-xr-x root rootOn Ubuntu:$ stat -c %A %U %G `which lsblk`-rwxr-xr-x root root
Why and when does `lsblk` require `sudo`?
permissions;util linux
The behavior of lsblk changed in util-linux at version 2.25.2-4:util-linux (2.25.2-4ubuntu2) vivid; urgency=low Add missing libudev-dev build-dependency. This  makes the LABEL information of lsblk available for non-root users(closes: #776905)-- Michael Vogt Tue, 03 Feb 2015 09:06:46 +0100@muru did additional testing to determine that FSTYPE, UUID, and LABEL are the only fields which need sudo in util-linux version 2.20.1-5.