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Given a device file, say /dev/sdb, is it possible to determine what driver is behind it?

Specifically, I want to determine what driver my storage devices are using. fdisk -l lists 2 devices: /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. One is a SATA hard drive and the other is a USB Mass Storage device - actually an SD card.

How do I determine, programmatically, which is which?

I am writing a piece of software, and I want to protect the beginner from obliterating their hard drives, whilst allowing them to obliterate their SD cards.

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  • I assume you're running Linux, based on your choice of device name. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Aug 11 '12 at 15:28
  • @Gilles Yeah, sorry that's probably quite an important piece of information... Thanks! – Alex Chamberlain Aug 11 '12 at 16:07
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Run udevadm info -a -n /dev/sda and parse the output. You'll see lines like

DRIVERS=="ahci"

for a SATA disk using the ahci driver, or

DRIVERS=="usb-storage"

for an USB-connected device. You'll also be able to display vendor and model names for confirmation. Also,

ATTR{removable}=="1"

is present on removable devices.

All of this information can also be obtained through /sys (in fact, that's where udevadm goes to look), but the /sys interface changes from time to time, so parsing udevadm is more robust in the long term.

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  • @AlexChamberlain Sorry, yes, -n expects a path to a block device (something under /dev) whereas -p expects a path under /sys (e.g. -p /sys/block/sda). – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Aug 12 '12 at 18:11

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