Macos – How to get the mount path of a USB device on OSX

bashmacosmountusb

I have a backup script that backs up some data to a USB device. The problem I have is that OSX sometimes changes the expected mount path. For example if some file is locked under the expected mount path, OSX mounts it on another path. A USB device named 'BACKUP' can be mounted at /Volumes/BACKUP-1 instead of /Volumes/BACKUP.

Is there a way to finding out the current mount path of a USB device in the OSX Terminal? Something like 'mount_path BACKUP' (command is fake) which would then return '/Volumes/BACKUP-1' or nothing if the device was not mounted?

Best Answer

The following commands show you information about mounted volumes:

  • The well-known Unix mount, showing e.g. /dev/disk5s3 mounted at /Volumes/Foo
  • diskutil list shows an overview of all disks and volumes
  • diskutil info /dev/disk5s3 shows information about that volume, including a Volume UUID that can be used to uniquely identify that volume.

You can query diskutil info by using the volume's UUID:

$ diskutil info DEC8759E-F77D-3EAE-B3EB-B6438F1AA428 | grep 'Mount Point'
   Mount Point:              /Volumes/DroboOne

Sample command output on my system:

$ mount
/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
localhost:/bNqIvVr1ZdFBdf19Io81Q4 on /Volumes/MobileBackups (mtmfs, nosuid, read-only, nobrowse)
/dev/disk4 on /Volumes/MyBook (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled)
/dev/disk5s3 on /Volumes/DroboOne (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
/dev/disk7s3 on /Volumes/DroboTwo (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
/dev/disk6s3 on /Volumes/DroboThree (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         240.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Servus10 HD            *239.7 GB   disk1
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         3.0 TB     disk2s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk2s3
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS MyBook                 *3.0 TB     disk4
/dev/disk5
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *2.2 TB     disk5
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk5s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS DroboOne                2.2 TB     disk5s3
/dev/disk6
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *2.2 TB     disk6
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk6s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS DroboThree              2.2 TB     disk6s3
/dev/disk7
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *2.2 TB     disk7
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk7s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS DroboTwo                2.2 TB     disk7s3

$ diskutil info /dev/disk5s3
   Device Identifier:        disk5s3
   Device Node:              /dev/disk5s3
   Part of Whole:            disk5
   Device / Media Name:      Untitled

   Volume Name:              DroboOne
   Escaped with Unicode:     DroboOne

   Mounted:                  Yes
   Mount Point:              /Volumes/DroboOne
   Escaped with Unicode:     /Volumes/DroboOne

   File System Personality:  Journaled HFS+
   Type (Bundle):            hfs
   Name (User Visible):      Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
   Journal:                  Journal size 172032 KB at offset 0x4001000
   Owners:                   Disabled

   Partition Type:           Apple_HFS
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 FireWire
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Volume UUID:              DEC8759E-F77D-3EAE-B3EB-B6438F1AA428

   Total Size:               2.2 TB (2198888927232 Bytes) (exactly 4294704936 512-Byte-Blocks)
   Volume Free Space:        169.4 GB (169412173824 Bytes) (exactly 330883152 512-Byte-Blocks)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         No
   Ejectable:                Yes

   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 No
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