Re: usb plug/unplug notifications

[John Coppens <john jcoppens com>]

On Thu, 9 Jul 2009 17:38:24 -0500
"Garth's KidStuff" <garthskidstuff gmail com> wrote:

> I'd like to know how to intercept usb events.  Right now, I'm polling
> for changes, but that isn't the "right" way to handle device
> discovery.  Is there a way to get a notification when something happens
> in the usb world?

In recent distributions, udev is used. udev manages all hardware events,
and executes rules which are located in (possibly several) locations.
One such location is /usr/udev/rules. You can edit those rules to make
events call your programs, modify things, etc. 

The syntax of the rules is relatively simple and powerful, and you can
edit them with a simple editor. The command

udevadm monitor

will show you the events on the terminal, as a way to look at the events
that are detected. Do a 'man udev' for more info.

John