gnome-disk-image-mounter

gnome-disk-image-mounter image_file

image_file
    The path to the disk image file that gnome-disk-image-mounter should open and prompt to mount. This can be an ISO, a raw disk image (.img, .bin), or other supported virtual disk formats.

--help
    Displays a brief help message and exits. This is a common option for many GTK/GLib applications, though not always explicitly detailed in manual pages for helper binaries.

--version
    Outputs the version information of the gnome-disk-image-mounter utility and exits. Also a common option for GTK/GLib applications.

gnome-disk-image-mounter is a helper application for the GNOME desktop environment, specifically designed to facilitate the mounting of various disk image formats. It acts as an intermediary, allowing users to easily open and mount images like ISO files, raw disk images (.img, .bin), or other virtual disk formats directly from the file manager or by invoking the command. When an image file is opened with this utility, it typically launches a GNOME Disks dialog, prompting the user for the desired action, such as mounting the image, often read-only, to a temporary location. This utility leverages the udisks2 framework for underlying disk management operations, providing a user-friendly graphical interface on top of powerful command-line tools. It simplifies the process of accessing content within disk images without needing to manually use low-level `mount` or `losetup` commands.

gnome-disk-image-mounter is primarily a graphical user interface helper. It has limited command-line functionality beyond specifying the image file. All interactive choices and actual mounting operations are handled by the gnome-disks application and the underlying udisks2 service, which it relies upon heavily. Direct control over mount options (like filesystem type, read-write access, specific mount points) is typically done through the graphical dialog presented by gnome-disks.

gnome-disk-image-mounter is an integral part of the gnome-disk-utility project, which has evolved over time to provide comprehensive disk management capabilities within the GNOME desktop environment. Its development is closely tied to the broader GNOME ecosystem's commitment to user-friendly system administration tools. The utility emerged as a dedicated helper for handling disk images, providing seamless integration with the file manager and the gnome-disks application, leveraging the udisks2 backend for modern disk management, especially since the GNOME 3 era. Its core purpose is to abstract the complexities of manual loop device setup and mounting commands, simplifying the process for end-users.

gnome-disks(1), udisksctl(1), mount(8), losetup(8)