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 command can also control some multi-disc CD-ROM changers, the auto-eject feature sup‐
ported 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, remov‐
able floppy, or tape. By default eject tries all four methods in order until it succeeds.
If device partition is specified, the whole-disk device is used. If the device or a device partition is cur‐
rently mounted, it is unmounted before ejecting.
OPTIONS
-a, --auto on|off
This option controls the auto-eject mode, supported by some devices. When enabled, the drive automati‐
cally 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. Linux 2.0 or higher is
required to use this feature. The CD-ROM drive can not 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, --floppy
This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using a removable floppy disk eject command.
-F, --force
Force eject, don't check device type.
-h, --help
Print a 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 inadvertently pressed.
-p, --proc
This option allow you to use /proc/mounts instead /etc/mtab. It also passes the -n option to umount(1).
-q, --tape
This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using a tape drive offline command.
-m, --no-unmount
-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.
-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.
-v, --verbose
Run in verbose mode; more information is displayed about what the command is doing.
-V, --version
Display program version and exit.
-x, --cdspeed <speed>
With this option the drive is given a CD-ROM select speed command. 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 sup‐
port 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.
-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 drive may
not correctly report the speed and therefore this option does not work with them.
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 limitation of the kernel
driver for the device and not the eject program itself.
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 options 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 par‐
titions of the device before ejecting (see --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
AVAILABILITY
The eject command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨ftp://
ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩.
Linux April 2012 EJECT(1)
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