how to get the device ID of a USB mass storage device

ebinjose · 10-30-2008, 04:34 AM

Hi,

I need to mount a USB mass storage device (a memory stick) on to my linux.
from the output of "dmesg" I can see the device name/node is "sdb1".

At different times, when I inserted different USB drives, on different linux PCs I have seen this name in different ways. Sometimes its "sda" sometimes "sda1" etc.

My requirement is I should be able to mount the USB device from "C" program using the mount system call ie.

int mount(const char *source, const char *target, const char *filesystemtype,
unsigned long mountflags, const void *data);

So I need the device name/node everytime.

1) My question is say I hardcoded the device name as "sdb1" after reading the output of "dmesg" manually. Is the name going to be same everytime.
I may be using a different USB device etc.

2) Or is there a way to get the device name dynamically by invoking some linux system call, so that at startup I check this and mount accordingly.

Thanks in advance.
Ebin.

{BBI}Nexus{BBI} · 10-30-2008, 05:58 AM

The command lsusb will show you the device id. Depending on your system you may be able to run that command without having to be root first. Try:

Code:

lsusb

or

Code:

/usr/sbin/lsusb

as a normal user. If both fail switch to root and do:

Code:

lsusb