debian man page for diskd

diskd(1)						      General Commands Manual							  diskd(1)

Name
       diskd - disk daemon; wait for disk to be inserted

Note
       This  manpage has been automatically generated from fdutils's texinfo documentation.  However, this process is only approximative, and some
       items, such as cross-references, footnotes and indices are lost in this translation process.  Indeed, these items have no appropriate  rep-
       resentation  in	the  manpage  format.  Moreover, only the items specific to each command have been translated, and the general information
       about fdutils has been dropped in the manpage version.  Thus I strongly advise you to use the original texinfo doc.

       *      To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the following commands:

		     ./configure; make dvi; dvips fdutils.dvi

       *      To generate a HTML copy,	run:

		     ./configure; make html

	      A pre-made HTML can be found at: `http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils'

       *      To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode), run:

		     ./configure; make info

       The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as HTML.  Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult to read due  to  the
       quoting conventions used in info.

Description
       The diskd command has the following syntax:

	  diskd [-d drive] [-i interval] [-e command]

       Diskd  waits for a disk to be inserted into a given drive, and then either executes the command or exits. This program can be used to auto-
       matically mount a disk as soon as it is inserted.

Warning
       This program works by switching the motor on for a very short interval, and then seeking to track -1. This might  damage  hardware  in  the
       long  run.  Amigas,  which  also  use these techniques, are known for having problems with their disk drives no longer spinning up properly
       after a few month of usage.

Options
       -d drive
	      Selects the drive to observe for disk insertion. By default, drive 0 (/dev/fd0) is observed.

       -i interval
	      Selects the polling interval. The interval is given in tenths of seconds. Default is 10 (one second).

       -e command
	      Gives the command to be executed when a disk is inserted. If no command is given the program simply exits.  Typically,  the  command
	      mounts the disk. It can be a shell scripts which probes for several filesystems and disk geometries until it succeeds.

Bugs
       *      Automatic  unmounting  cannot yet be handled. It is indeed not enough to scan for disk removal, because when the disk is removed, it
	      is already too late: There might be some buffers needing flushing.  However, the fdmountd program  allows  automatic  unmounting	by
	      using the SYNC mount options, which switches off write buffering (see section  fdmount).

       *      The drive motor is running all the time, and on some computers, the drive led flickers at each time the drive is polled.

See Also
       Fdutils' texinfo doc

fdutils-5.5							      03Mar05								  diskd(1)