What is a Linux command that lists only USB storage devices?

Question

I would like to list only the USB storage devices connected to my computer. Since these are SCSI disks, I used the command lsscsi, which lists the USB drives as well as my computer's hard drive and CD drive. Is there a way to ignore the memory storage that's not a USB? I have also tried lsusb, but this includes my keyboard, mouse, and other non-storage devices.

So "I would like to list only the USB devices connected to my computer." is not what you want? Do you want to list only the USB storage devices on your computer? — 111---, Jul 08 '15 at 20:04
Yes, I want just the storage devices. I have edited my question. Thanks! — Kalmar, Jul 08 '15 at 20:06
@don_crissti well that's a little gem hidden away in the comments. Any reason why you didn't provide it as an answer? I don't understand StackExchance that well so there could be a good reason. — whossname, Sep 24 '21 at 03:09

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

8

This answer checks the list of all attached block devices and iterates over them with udevadmin to check their respective ID_BUS.

You can see all attached block devices in /sys/block. Here is the bash script from the linked answer that should let you know if it is a USB storage device:

for device in /sys/block/*
do
    if udevadm info --query=property --path=$device | grep -q ^ID_BUS=usb
    then
        echo $device
    fi
done

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

Community

1

answered Jul 08 '15 at 20:19

111---

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props for the ^ID_BUS=usb I was thinking how to achieve this. – vfbsilva Jul 08 '15 at 20:21
That part came from the linked answer :) But yeah it is pretty smooth. – 111--- Jul 08 '15 at 20:27

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 24 '19 at 11:11

I just wrote a function:

dmu() {
  # Criação       : 2019-07-24 RBR.
  local disks=`lsblk -o name,tran | awk '$2=="usb"{print $1}' | tr "\n" " " | sed -E "s/^ +//g;s/ +$//g"`
  local mask=`sed -E "s/ /\([\\\\t ]|[0-9]\)+|/g;s/$/\([\\\\t ]|[0-9]\)+/g" <<< ${disks}`
  lsblk -f | sed -n "1p" 
  lsblk -f | grep -E "$mask"
}

Peter Evselyev · Answer 3 · 2023-11-25T11:09:46.000

lsblk --noheadings --nodeps --paths --raw --output NAME,RM,TRAN,TYPE | grep " 1 usb disk$" | cut --delimiter " " --fields 1

Example output:

/dev/sdd
/dev/sde
/dev/sdf

Basically, with grep you filter removable USB disks. Some examples of unfiltered lsblk output for various devices:

/dev/loop0 0 loop
/dev/sda 0 sata disk SATA SSD
/dev/sdb 0 sata disk SATA HDD
/dev/sdd 1 usb disk USB flash drive
/dev/sr0 1 sata rom SATA DVD-RW

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 08 '15 at 20:20

-1

You can use lsblk.

lsblk 
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 465,8G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   285M  0 part /boot
├─sda2   8:2    0   1,9G  0 part [SWAP]
├─sda3   8:3    0  74,5G  0 part /
└─sda4   8:4    0 389,1G  0 part /home
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

Usualy usb devices are on sdb so lsblk sdb should give all usb devices.

answered Jul 08 '15 at 20:20

vfbsilva

3,697

I think this might work. The only thing is that SCSI disks are added in the order that they're mounted and so I'd just have to assume that my hard drive and DVD drive were only sda. – Kalmar Jul 08 '15 at 21:02

What is a Linux command that lists only USB storage devices?

4 Answers4