udisks

udisks — storage management

DESCRIPTION

udisks provides an interface to enumerate and perform operations on storage devices. Any application can access the udisksd(8) daemon via the name org.freedesktop.UDisks2 on the system message bus. Some operations (such as formatting disks etc.) are restricted using polkit(8).

ACCESS CONTROL

By default, logged-in users in active log-in sessions are permitted to mount and unlock devices attached to the local console. To lock down globally, configure the polkit(8) authorizations for the actions filesystem-mount, filesystem-mount-system, encrypted-unlock and encrypted-unlock-system, all in the org.freedesktop.udisks2 namespace.

Note that the actions ending in -system typically requires administrator authentication and are used for devices not considered "removable" (devices considered "removable" include USB attached storage, Flash media, optical discs etc.). The udev property UDISKS_SYSTEM can be used to override this on a per-device basis, see below.

To lock down access on a per-device basis, use the option x-udisks-auth in the /etc/fstab file and the option x-udisks-auth in the /etc/crypttab file.

DEVICE INFORMATION

On Linux, udisks relies on recent versions of udev(7) and the Linux kernel. Influential device properties in the udev database include:

UDISKS_SYSTEM

If set, this overrides the value of the HintSystem property.

UDISKS_IGNORE

If set, this overrides the value of the HintIgnore property.

UDISKS_AUTO

If set, this overrides the value of the HintAuto property.

UDISKS_NAME

The name to use for the device when presenting it in an user interface. This corresponds to the HintName property.

UDISKS_ICON_NAME

The icon to use for the device when presenting it in an user interface. If set, the name must adhere to the freedesktop.org icon theme specification. This corresponds to the HintIconName property.

For media and drive identification, the output of the probers supplied by udev(7) (such as cdrom_id, ata_id and scsi_id) are used in addition to the following properties:

ID_DRIVE_THUMB

The device is a thumb-drive with non-removable media (e.g. a USB stick).

ID_DRIVE_FLASH

The device is compatible with flash.

ID_DRIVE_FLASH_CF

The device is compatible with Compact Flash.

ID_DRIVE_FLASH_MS

The device is compatible with Memory Stick.

ID_DRIVE_FLASH_SM

The device is compatible with SmartMedia.

ID_DRIVE_FLASH_SD

The device is compatible with SecureDigital.

ID_DRIVE_FLASH_SDHC

The device is compatible with High-Capacity SecureDigital.

ID_DRIVE_FLASH_SDXC

The device is compatible with Extended-Capacity SecureDigital.

ID_DRIVE_FLASH_MMC

The device is compatible with MultiMediaCard.

ID_DRIVE_FLOPPY

The device is compatible with floppy disk.

ID_DRIVE_FLOPPY_ZIP

The device is compatible with Zip.

ID_DRIVE_FLOPPY_JAZ

The device is compatible with Jaz.

While the ID_DRIVE_* properties describe what kind of media the drive accepts (more than one property can be set) and correspond to the MediaCompatibility property, the ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_* properties describe the current media in a device (typically only one of these properties are set) and correspond to the Media property:

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH

The physical media currently inserted into the device is flash.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH_CF

The physical media currently inserted into the device is Compact Flash.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH_MS

The physical media currently inserted into the device is Memory Stick.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH_SM

The physical media currently inserted into the device is SmartMedia.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH_SD

The physical media currently inserted into the device is SecureDigital.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH_SDHC

The physical media currently inserted into the device is High-Capacity SecureDigital.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH_SDXC

The physical media currently inserted into the device is Extended-Capacity SecureDigital.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLASH_MMC

The physical media currently inserted into the device is MultiMediaCard.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLOPPY

The physical media currently inserted into the device is floppy disk.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLOPPY_ZIP

The physical media currently inserted into the device is Zip.

ID_DRIVE_MEDIA_FLOPPY_JAZ

The physical media currently inserted into the device is Jaz.

AUTHOR

Written by David Zeuthen with a lot of help from many others.

BUGS

Please send bug reports to either the distribution bug tracker or the upstream bug tracker at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=udisks.

SEE ALSO

udev(7), polkit(8), udisksd(8), udisksctl(1)