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authorKarel Zak2011-06-09 22:04:24 +0200
committerKarel Zak2011-06-09 22:04:24 +0200
commit8fb4efae6f5fabbe889bebbda60e9f7dce930f1f (patch)
tree0f06756ea1ba620c7209ce265b21dddbb2ce6778 /libblkid/libblkid.3
parentbuild-sys: use top-level directory for libmount rather than shlibs/mount (diff)
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build-sys: use top-level directory for libblkid rather than shlibs/blkid
Signed-off-by: Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
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+.\" Copyright 2001 Andreas Dilger (adilger@turbolinux.com)
+.\"
+.\" This man page was created for libblkid.so.1.0 from e2fsprogs-1.24.
+.\"
+.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
+.\"
+.\" Created Wed Sep 14 12:02:12 2001, Andreas Dilger
+.TH LIBBLKID 3 "May 2009" "util-linux"
+.SH NAME
+libblkid \- block device identification library
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B #include <blkid.h>
+.sp
+.B cc
+.I file.c
+.B \-lblkid
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+The
+.B libblkid
+library is used to identify block devices (disks) as to their content (e.g.
+filesystem type) as well as extracting additional information such as
+filesystem labels/volume names, unique identifiers/serial numbers, etc.
+A common use is to allow use of LABEL= and UUID= tags instead of hard-coding
+specific block device names into configuration files.
+.P
+Block device information is normally kept in a cache file
+.I /etc/blkid.tab
+and is verified to still be valid before being returned to the user
+(if the user has read permission on the raw block device, otherwise not).
+The cache file also allows unprivileged users (normally anyone other
+than root, or those not in the "disk" group) to locate devices by label/id.
+The standard location of the cache file can be overridden by the
+environment variable BLKID_FILE.
+.P
+In situations where one is getting information about a single known device,
+it does not impact performance whether the cache is used or not (unless you
+are not able to read the block device directly). If you are dealing with
+multiple devices, use of the cache is highly recommended (even if empty) as
+devices will be scanned at most one time and the on-disk cache will be
+updated if possible. There is rarely a reason not to use the cache.
+.P
+In some cases (modular kernels), block devices are not even visible until
+after they are accessed the first time, so it is critical that there is
+some way to locate these devices without enumerating only visible devices,
+so the use of the cache file is
+.B required
+in this situation.
+.SH CONFIGURATION FILE
+The standard location of the
+.I /etc/blkid.conf
+config file can be overridden by the environment variable BLKID_CONF.
+The following options control the libblkid library:
+.TP
+.I SEND_UEVENT=<yes|not>
+Sends uevent when
+.I /dev/disk/by-{label,uuid}/
+symlink does not match with LABEL or UUID on the device. Default is "yes".
+.TP
+.I CACHE_FILE=<path>
+Overrides the standard location of the cache file. This setting can be
+overridden by the environment variable BLKID_FILE. Default is
+.I /etc/blkid.tab.
+.TP
+.I EVALUATE=<methods>
+Defines LABEL and UUID evaluation method(s). Currently, the libblkid library
+supports "udev" and "scan" methods. More than one methods may be specified in
+a comma separated list. Default is "udev,scan". The "udev" method uses udev
+.I /dev/disk/by-*
+symlinks and the "scan" method scans all block devices from the
+.I /proc/partitions
+file.
+.SH AUTHOR
+.B libblkid
+was written by Andreas Dilger for the ext2 filesystem utilties, with input
+from Ted Ts'o. The library was subsequently heavily modified by Ted Ts'o.
+
+The low-level probing code was rewritten by Karel Zak.
+.SH FILES
+.TP 18
+.I /etc/blkid.tab
+caches data extracted from each recognized block device
+.TP
+.I /etc/blkid.conf
+configuration file
+.SH AVAILABILITY
+.B libblkid
+is part of the util-linux package since version 2.15 and is available from
+ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
+.SH COPYING
+.B libblkid
+is available under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL),
+version 2 (or at your discretion any later version). A copy of the LGPL
+should be included with this library in the file COPYING. If not, write to
+.RS
+Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+.br
+51 Franklin St
+.br
+Fifth Floor
+.br
+Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
+.RE
+.PP
+or visit
+.UR http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#LGPL
+http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#LGPL
+.UE
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+.BR blkid (8)
+.BR findfs (8)