drive-watch

drive-watch.js

Watch for drive mount/eject events in OS X

Current status

API is subject to change in later versions (v0.4.0). No tests but it seems to work. OS X only, with untested support for Ubuntu.

Usage

Watches drives attached to the system and calls a function when a drive is mounted/ejected.

Call new DriveWatch(handler) then call .start().

.start() returns a Promise which resolves when watching has begun. It returns an array of the names of drives currently mounted.

handler is called thereafter whenever a drive is mounted or ejected. handler is called with arguments (eventType, driveName).

.drives contains an array of the names of currently mounted drives.

Call .stop() to stop watching.

Example

var DriveWatch = require('drive-watch');
 
var dw = new DriveWatch(function(eventType, driveName) {
    // Called when a drive is mounted/ejected
    console.log('Event: ' + eventType + ' - ' + driveName);
});
 
dw.start()
.then(function(drives) {
    // drives = array of drive names currently connected
    console.log('Drives:', drives);
})

This outputs:

// Initial output
Drives: [ 'Macintosh HD' ]
 
// Connect a drive
Event: mount - MyDrive
 
// Eject the drive
Event: eject - MyDrive

Options

scanInterval

In case of fs.watch not registering a drive being mounted/ejected (happens sometimes on OS X when a drive is pulled without being safely ejected), drive-watch also scans the drives periodically and calls the handler accordingly.

options.scanInterval sets the interval in milliseconds that a scan is performed. Set to a falsy value (e.g. 0) to disable periodic scanning.

// Scan once a minute
var dw = new DriveWatch(
    function(eventType, driveName) { /* handle event */ },
    { scanInterval: 60000 }
);

// Disable periodic scanning
var dw = new DriveWatch(
    function(eventType, driveName) { /* handle event */ },
    { scanInterval: 0 }
);

handler

An alternative way to provide the event handler.

var dw = new DriveWatch( {
    handler: function(eventType, driveName) { /* handle event */ },
    scanInterval: 10000
} );
 
// ...is same as
var dw = new DriveWatch(
    function(eventType, driveName) { /* handle event */ },
    { scanInterval: 10000 }
);

Tests

Use npm test to run the tests. Use npm run cover to check coverage.

Changelog

See changelog.md

Issues

If you discover a bug, please raise an issue on Github. https://github.com/overlookmotel/drive-watch/issues

Contribution

Pull requests are very welcome. Please:

• ensure all tests pass before submitting PR
• add an entry to changelog
• add tests for new features
• document new functionality/API additions in README