Functions

Types and Values

Description

Block device information is normally kept in a cache file 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.

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.

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 required in this situation.

Functions

void
blkid_gc_cache (blkid_cache cache);

int
blkid_get_cache (blkid_cache *cache,
                 const char *filename);

void
blkid_put_cache (blkid_cache cache);

int
blkid_probe_all (blkid_cache cache);

int
blkid_probe_all_removable (blkid_cache cache);

int
blkid_probe_all_new (blkid_cache cache);

blkid_dev
blkid_verify (blkid_cache cache,
              blkid_dev dev);

Types and Values

typedef struct blkid_struct_cache *blkid_cache;