udisksd

udisksd [OPTIONS...]

--help
    Displays a help message and exits.

--version
    Shows version information and exits.

--verbose
    Enables verbose output for debugging purposes.

udisksd is the D-Bus system daemon that provides a high-level interface for managing storage devices on Linux systems. It discovers and monitors block devices, optical drives, and other storage media, offering functionalities such as mounting filesystems, formatting partitions, creating new partitions, and managing cryptographic volumes (e.g., LUKS). It integrates with udev for device discovery and relies on D-Bus for inter-process communication, enabling desktop environments and applications to interact with storage devices without directly requiring root privileges for every operation.

udisksd is a core component for modern Linux desktops, facilitating hot-plugging, auto-mounting, and device enumeration, making storage management seamless for users.

udisksd is a system daemon primarily managed by systemd or similar init systems. Users should generally not run it directly from the command line, as its lifecycle is handled by the system. Interactions with udisksd are typically performed indirectly via the udisksctl command-line tool or through graphical desktop environments that leverage its D-Bus interface. Misconfiguration or tampering with the daemon can lead to system instability, data loss, or security vulnerabilities related to device access.

udisksd exposes a comprehensive D-Bus API, allowing applications and desktop components (such as file managers and disk utilities) to enumerate, mount, unmount, format, and manage storage devices without requiring elevated privileges for each operation. This standardized interface simplifies integration and enhances security within the Linux ecosystem.

The udisksd daemon heavily relies on udev events for dynamic device discovery and monitoring. When a storage device is plugged in, unplugged, or its state changes, udev notifies udisksd. The daemon then updates its internal state and propagates these changes through its D-Bus interface, ensuring real-time awareness of storage device availability and status.

udisksd is part of the UDisks project, which was developed to provide a modern, integrated approach to storage device management on Linux. It effectively replaced older, less integrated systems like HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) and DeviceKit, offering a more robust and D-Bus-centric solution. Its development has focused on improving hot-plugging, auto-mounting, and abstracting complex storage operations for desktop environments and applications.

udisksctl(1), udisks(8), udev(7), mount(8), fstab(5)