EJECT(1) User Commands EJECT(1)
NAME
eject - eject removable media
SYNOPSIS
eject [options] device|mountpoint
DESCRIPTION
eject allows removable media (typically a CD-ROM, floppy disk, tape,
JAZ, ZIP or USB disk) to be ejected under software control. The com-
mand can also control some multi-disc CD-ROM changers, the auto-eject
feature supported by some devices, and close the disc tray of some CD-
ROM drives.
The device corresponding to device or mountpoint is ejected. If no
name is specified, the default name /dev/cdrom is used. The device may
be addressed by device name (e.g., 'sda'), device path (e.g.,
'/dev/sda'), UUID=uuid or LABEL=label tags.
There are four different methods of ejecting, depending on whether the
device is a CD-ROM, SCSI device, removable floppy, or tape. By default
eject tries all four methods in order until it succeeds.
If a device partition is specified, the whole-disk device is used.
If the device or a device partition is currently mounted, it is un-
mounted before ejecting. The eject is processed on exclusive open
block device file descriptor if --no-unmount or --force are not speci-
fied.
OPTIONS
-a, --auto on|off
This option controls the auto-eject mode, supported by some de-
vices. When enabled, the drive automatically ejects when the
device is closed.
-c, --changerslot slot
With this option a CD slot can be selected from an ATAPI/IDE CD-
ROM changer. The CD-ROM drive cannot be in use (mounted data CD
or playing a music CD) for a change request to work. Please also
note that the first slot of the changer is referred to as 0, not
1.
-d, --default
List the default device name.
-F, --force
Force eject, don't check device type, don't open device with ex-
clusive lock. The successful result may be false positive on
non hot-pluggable devices.
-f, --floppy
This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using a
removable floppy disk eject command.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-i, --manualeject on|off
This option controls locking of the hardware eject button. When
enabled, the drive will not be ejected when the button is
pressed. This is useful when you are carrying a laptop in a bag
or case and don't want it to eject if the button is inadver-
tently pressed.
-M, --no-partitions-unmount
The option tells eject to not try to unmount other partitions on
partitioned devices. If another partition is still mounted, the
program will not attempt to eject the media. It will attempt to
unmount only the device or mountpoint given on the command line.
-m, --no-unmount
The option tells eject to not try to unmount at all. If this
option is not specified than eject opens the device with O_EXCL
flag to be sure that the device is not used (since v2.35).
-n, --noop
With this option the selected device is displayed but no action
is performed.
-p, --proc
This option allows you to use /proc/mounts instead /etc/mtab.
It also passes the -n option to umount(8).
-q, --tape
This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using a
tape drive offline command.
-r, --cdrom
This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using a
CDROM eject command.
-s, --scsi
This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using
SCSI commands.
-T, --traytoggle
With this option the drive is given a CD-ROM tray close command
if it's opened, and a CD-ROM tray eject command if it's closed.
Not all devices support this command, because it uses the above
CD-ROM tray close command.
-t, --trayclose
With this option the drive is given a CD-ROM tray close command.
Not all devices support this command.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-v, --verbose
Run in verbose mode; more information is displayed about what
the command is doing.
-X, --listspeed
With this option the CD-ROM drive will be probed to detect the
available speeds. The output is a list of speeds which can be
used as an argument of the -x option. This only works with
Linux 2.6.13 or higher, on previous versions solely the maximum
speed will be reported. Also note that some drives may not cor-
rectly report the speed and therefore this option does not work
with them.
-x, --cdspeed speed
With this option the drive is given a CD-ROM select speed com-
mand. The speed argument is a number indicating the desired
speed (e.g., 8 for 8X speed), or 0 for maximum data rate. Not
all devices support this command and you can only specify speeds
that the drive is capable of. Every time the media is changed
this option is cleared. This option can be used alone, or with
the -t and -c options.
EXIT STATUS
Returns 0 if operation was successful, 1 if operation failed or command
syntax was not valid.
NOTES
eject only works with devices that support one or more of the four
methods of ejecting. This includes most CD-ROM drives (IDE, SCSI, and
proprietary), some SCSI tape drives, JAZ drives, ZIP drives (parallel
port, SCSI, and IDE versions), and LS120 removable floppies. Users
have also reported success with floppy drives on Sun SPARC and Apple
Macintosh systems. If eject does not work, it is most likely a limita-
tion of the kernel driver for the device and not the eject program it-
self.
The -r, -s, -f, and -q options allow controlling which methods are used
to eject. More than one method can be specified. If none of these op-
tions are specified, it tries all four (this works fine in most cases).
eject may not always be able to determine if the device is mounted
(e.g., if it has several names). If the device name is a symbolic
link, eject will follow the link and use the device that it points to.
If eject determines that the device can have multiple partitions, it
will attempt to unmount all mounted partitions of the device before
ejecting (see also --no-partitions-unmount). If an unmount fails, the
program will not attempt to eject the media.
You can eject an audio CD. Some CD-ROM drives will refuse to open the
tray if the drive is empty. Some devices do not support the tray close
command.
If the auto-eject feature is enabled, then the drive will always be
ejected after running this command. Not all Linux kernel CD-ROM driv-
ers support the auto-eject mode. There is no way to find out the state
of the auto-eject mode.
You need appropriate privileges to access the device files. Running as
root is required to eject some devices (e.g., SCSI devices).
AUTHORS
Jeff Tranter <tranter@pobox.com> - original author.
Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> and Michal Luscon <mluscon@redhat.com> -
util-linux version.
SEE ALSO
findmnt(8), lsblk(8), mount(8), umount(8)
AVAILABILITY
The eject command is part of the util-linux package and is available
from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
linux/>.
Linux April 2012 EJECT(1)