USBmount

[ What is it? | Download | History | Bug Reporting ]

What is it?

The USBmount Debian package automatically mounts USB mass storage devices (typically USB pens) when they are plugged in, and unmounts them when they are removed. The mountpoints (/media/usb[0-7] by default), filesystem types to consider, and mount options are configurable. When multiple devices are plugged in, the first available mountpoint is automatically selected. If the device provides a model name, a symlink /var/run/usbmount/MODELNAME pointing to the mountpoint is automatically created.

The script that does the (un)mounting is called by the udev daemon. Therefore, USBmount requires a 2.6 (or newer) kernel.

USBmount is intended as a lightweight solution which is independent of a desktop environment. Users which would like an icon to appear when an USB device is plugged in should use the pmount and hal packages instead.

USBmount is licensed under an ‘all-permissive license’ (i.e. everything is allowed, as long as the copyright and license notices and the warranty disclaimer are preserved). See the debian/copyright file in the package for details.

If you are interested in the development of USBmount, please refer to the Alioth project page of USBmount.

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Download

Official Packages

The USBmount package overview page shows which version is in Debian and provides a link to download the package directly.

Latest Package

The latest Debian package of USBmount can be downloaded here:

• Source:
  • usbmount_0.0.14.1.dsc
  • usbmount_0.0.14.1.tar.gz
• Binary:
  • usbmount_0.0.14.1_all.deb
• Changes:
  • usbmount_0.0.14.1_amd64.changes

Subversion Repository

The USBmount project uses a Subversion repository for development. Type the command

svn checkout svn://svn.debian.org/svn/usbmount/trunk/usbmount

to check out the latest snapshot. You can also browse the repository on the web at http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/usbmount.

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History

• Version 0.0.14.1 (27-Jan-2007, latest release):
  • Orphan package.
• Version 0.0.14 (10-Jul-2005):
  • Make sure that /etc/dev.d/block/usbmount.dev is removed when the package is purged.
• Version 0.0.13 (08-Jul-2005):
  • Adapt to udev changes: udev_volume_id has been renamed to vol_id and its output has changed.
  • New section about the vfat filesystem type added to the README file.
  • /etc/dev.d is obsolete. Remove /etc/dev.d/block/usbmount.dev; the usbmount script is now called by the new file /etc/udev/usbmount.rules.
• Version 0.0.12 (01-Jul-2005):
  • The Standards-Version field in debian/control has been updated to 3.6.2. No changes to the package were necessary.
  • Search additional files in the /sys filesystem for vendor and model name.
• Version 0.0.11 (02-May-2005):
  • If a device is not readable, wait up to 20 seconds for it to become so. Some devices apparently need a few seconds initialization time before they can be accessed. Thanks to Peter Stelmachovic for his help with debugging this issue.
• Version 0.0.10 (12-Apr-2005):
  • When a partition (as opposed to a partition-less device) is mounted, an underscore and the partition number are appended to the model name symlink.
  • The model name symlink now includes the vendor if known.
  • Acquire lock before udev_volume_id is called. This causes the partitions (on a device with more than one partition) to be mounted in the right order.
  • Fixed typos in log messages.
  • Run hook scripts when a device or partition is mounted or unmounted. The README file describes how to use this feature.
  • Moved /etc/usbmount.conf to /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf.
  • Moved deletion of mount points in /media from prerm to postrm. Delete them not only when the package is removed, but also when installing is aborted.
  • Moved creation and deletion of model name symlinks to hook scripts.
• Version 0.0.9 (06-Apr-2005):
  • When a device is removed, only the corresponding model symlink in /var/run/usbmount is removed.
  • The directory /var/run/usbmount is no longer created by the postinst script; it is now included in the package.
  • The creation of the mount points in /media has been moved from postinst configure to preinst install. This ensures that the mount points are created if the package is removed (but not purged) and then reinstalled.
• Version 0.0.8 (03-Apr-2005):
  • Filesystem type specific mount options can be specified.
  • Locking is used to serialize concurrent mount attempts. This ensures that different mount points are chosen if a device contains more than one mountable partition.
  • Make sure that /var/run/usbmount is removed on package removal.
  • More detailed package description and README file.
• Version 0.0.7 (09-Mar-2005):
  • The default configuration does not mount vfat filesystems any more. The vfat filesystem type does not fully support sync-mounting. The default configuration file warns about this.
  • The package description refers to this page instead of the old homepage.
• Version 0.0.6 (08-Mar-2005):
  • Model name symlinks are created in /var/run/usbmount instead of /var/usbmount.
  • Rafael Laboissiere will kindly sponsor the package, so that it can be uploaded to Debian.
• Version 0.0.5 (23-Feb-2005):
  • Symlinks (model names) are created in /var/usbmount.
• Version 0.0.4 (21-Feb-2005):
  • Adapt to changes in udev_volume_id; depend on udev (>= 0.053-1).
  • Redirect standard output and standard error to /dev/null; log via syslog.
  • More verbose logging can be turned on with a configuration variable.
• Version 0.0.3 (08-Nov-2004):
  • Create /media if it doesn't already exist.
  • Include instructions for the reportbug program to send bug reports to the maintainer instead of the Debian BTS.
  • Move mounting and unmounting script to /usr/share/usbmount/usbmount.
• Version 0.0.2 (26-Oct-2004):
  • Don't kill processes before unmounting. Thanks to Martin F. Krafft for the suggestion.
• Version 0.0.1 (26-Oct-2004):
  • Initial release.

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Bug Reporting

If you find a bug in USBmount, please report it to the Debian BTS.

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