Device change notification on Linux
 

Hi all,

On Windows, whenever you plug in or unplug a device such as USB external hard disk or game controller, the application is sent a WM_DEVICECHANGE message.

What is the equivalent approach to detecting device changes on Linux?

I don't need specific details of what changes has occurred, all I want is some notification that something has been plugged in or unplugged.

Thanks in advance.

Try this one http://udev-notify.learnfree.eu/. It should run on most Linux distros provided udev is used/installed. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the link. I'm actually looking for an API based approach for a C/C++ application, so udev-notify is not quite what I'm after.

However, I notice that udev-notify uses udev to monitor device changes, and I also see that there is a libudev library which looks promising.

Is libudev the best (i.e. most efficient and most widely supported) way to check for device changes?

I linked udev-notify because it might help you start from somewhere. I was aware your question was programming related but wasn't really sure, hence I dropped that link and know you'd pick it up from where it might lead you (to where its getting its info, from udev). Yes and it's (udev-notify) python, but it (udev) can be for any capable language.

I'd say it's the best place to start because it is common for all distros using 2.6.x kernels.

No worries, you put me on the right track. Very much appreciated :D

If it's guaranteed to work on all current versions of Linux, then it will do the trick! I'm going to give libudev a try tonight. Thanks again!