Test /dev/sd*, /dev/hd* for type

EmrldDrgn · 07-04-2009, 08:32 PM

Is there a way to test, say, /dev/sda to see if it's a hard drive or a CD-ROM or a USB stick? Maybe get some more details about it (anything would be nice)?

unSpawn · 07-04-2009, 09:08 PM

If /dev/sda is an USB stick then 'fdisk', 'sfdisk' or 'disktype' will work, however if it's an empty CDROM drive they won't. There's other ways like looking in /sys. Try grepping info from 'udevinfo -q all -e'?

osor · 07-05-2009, 03:09 PM

If you have hald running, you can also use its API to get this information. For example:

Code:

hal-get-property --udi $(hal-find-by-property --key block.device --string '/dev/sda') --key storage.drive_type
hal-get-property --udi $(hal-find-by-property --key block.device --string '/dev/sda') --key storage.bus