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| -rw-r--r-- | lib/blkid/libblkid.3.in | 80 |
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diff --git a/lib/blkid/libblkid.3.in b/lib/blkid/libblkid.3.in new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18c4a27 --- /dev/null +++ b/lib/blkid/libblkid.3.in @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +.\" Copyright 2001 Andreas Dilger (adilger@turbolinux.com) +.\" +.\" This man page was created for libblkid.so.1.0 from e2fsprogs-1.24. +.\" +.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License. +.\" +.\" Created Wed Sep 14 12:02:12 2001, Andreas Dilger +.TH LIBBLKID 3 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@" +.SH NAME +libblkid \- block device identification library +.SH SYNOPSIS +.B #include <blkid/blkid.h> +.sp +.B cc +.I file.c +.B \-lblkid +.SH DESCRIPTION +The +.B libblkid +library is used to identify block devices (disks) as to their content (e.g. +file system type) as well as extracting additional information such as +file system labels/volume names, unique identifiers/serial numbers, etc. +A common use is to allow use of LABEL= and UUID= tags instead of hard-coding +specific block device names into configuration files. +.P +Block device information is normally kept in a cache file +.I /etc/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. +.P +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. +.P +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 +.B required +in this situation. +.SH AUTHOR +.B libblkid +was written by Andreas Dilger for the ext2 file system utilities, with input +from Ted Ts'o. The library was subsequently heavily modified by Ted Ts'o. +.SH FILES +.TP +.I /etc/blkid.tab +Caches data extracted from each recognized block device. +.SH AVAILABILITY +.B libblkid +is part of the e2fsprogs package since version 1.33 and is available from +http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net. +.SH COPYING +.B libblkid +is available under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL), +version 2 (or at your discretion any later version). A copy of the LGPL +should be included with this library in the file COPYING. If not, write to +.RS +Free Software Foundation, Inc. +.br +51 Franklin St +.br +Fifth Floor +.br +Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA +.RE +.PP +or visit +.UR http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#LGPL +http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#LGPL +.UE +.SH "SEE ALSO" +.BR blkid (8) |