udisksd

udisksd [OPTIONS]

--no-daemon
    Run in the foreground; do not daemonize.

--debug
    Enable debug output.

--version
    Show program version number and exit.

--help
    Show help message and exit.

udisksd is a system service that implements the org.freedesktop.UDisks2 D-Bus interface.

It provides a high-level API for interacting with storage devices (like disks, partitions, and filesystems) on a Linux system. udisksd handles tasks such as enumerating storage devices, mounting and unmounting filesystems, formatting disks, managing LUKS encryption, and more. It abstracts away the complexities of interacting directly with low-level system interfaces like device nodes and ioctls, offering a cleaner and more consistent interface to applications and desktop environments.

Many graphical tools, such as file managers and disk utilities, rely on udisksd to perform storage-related operations in a secure and user-friendly way, providing authentication and authorization via PolicyKit. It aims to replace older tools like HAL. The service typically runs in the background as a system daemon and is automatically started by systemd.

udisksd is a system service, and direct invocation is usually not needed. Instead, use the D-Bus interface via tools like `udisksctl` to interact with the service.

udisksd exposes a D-Bus interface under the name org.freedesktop.UDisks2. Applications can use this interface to query and manipulate storage devices.

Operations performed through udisksd are subject to PolicyKit authorization. This ensures that only authorized users can perform sensitive actions like mounting system partitions or formatting disks.

udisksd was developed to replace the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) framework. HAL was deprecated due to its design limitations and lack of active maintenance. udisksd provides a more modular and efficient approach to storage management, leveraging the D-Bus inter-process communication mechanism. The first versions of udisksd were released in the late 2000s, and it has since become a standard component of most Linux distributions.

udisksctl(1), mount(8), blkid(8)