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DEVD.CONF(5) File Formats Manual DEVD.CONF(5) NAME devd.conf -- configuration file format for devd(8) DESCRIPTION General Syntax A devd(8) configuration consists of two general features, statements and comments. All statements end with a semicolon. Many statements can con- tain substatements, which are also terminated with a semicolon. The following statements are supported: attach Specifies various matching criteria and actions to perform when a newly attached device matches said criteria. detach Specifies various matching criteria and actions to perform when a newly detached device matches said criteria. nomatch Specifies various matching criteria and actions to perform when no device driver currently loaded in the kernel claims a (new) de- vice. notify Specifies various matching criteria and actions to perform when the kernel sends an event notification to userland. options Specifies various options and parameters for the operation of devd(8). Statements may occur in any order in the configuration file, and may be re- peated as often as required. Further details on the syntax and meaning of each statement and their substatements are explained below. Each statement, except options has a priority (an arbitrary number) associ- ated with it, where `0' is defined as the lowest priority. If two state- ments match the same event, only the action of the statement with highest priority will be executed. In this way generic statements can be overrid- den for devices or notifications that require special attention. The general syntax of a statement is: statement priority { substatement "value"; ... substatement "value"; }; Sub-statements The following sub-statements are supported within the options statement. directory "/some/path"; Adds the given directory to the list of directories from which devd(8) will read all files named "*.conf" as further configura- tion files. Any number of directory statements can be used. pid-file "/var/run/devd.pid"; Specifies PID file. set regexp-name "(some|regexp)"; Creates a regular expression and assigns it to the variable regexp-name. The variable is available throughout the rest of the configuration file. If the string begins with `!', it matches if the regular expression formed by the rest of the string does not match. All regular expressions have an implicit `^$' around them. The following sub-statements are supported within the attach and detach statements. action "command"; Command to execute upon a successful match. Example "/etc/pccard_ether $device-name start". class "string"; This is shorthand for "match "class" "string"". device-name "string"; This is shorthand for "match "device-name" "string"". This matches a device named string, which is allowed to be a regular expression or a variable previously created containing a regular expression. The "device-name" variable is available for later use with the action statement. match "variable" "value"; Matches the content of value against variable; the content of value may be a regular expression. Not required during attach nor detach events since the device-name statement takes care of all device matching. For a partial list of variables, see be- low. media-type "string"; For network devices, media-type will match devices that have the given media type. Valid media types are: "Ethernet", "802.11", and "ATM". subdevice "string"; This is shorthand for "match "subdevice" "string"". The following sub-statements are supported within the nomatch statement. action "command"; Same as above. match "variable" "value"; Matches the content of value against variable; the content of value may be a regular expression. For a partial list of vari- ables, see below. The following sub-statements are supported within the notify statement. The "notify" variable is available inside this statement and contains, a value, depending on which system and subsystem that delivered the event. action "command"; Command to execute upon a successful match. Example "/etc/rc.d/power_profile $notify". match "system | subsystem | type | notify" "value"; Any number of match statements can exist within a notify state- ment; value can be either a fixed string or a regular expres- sion. Below is a list of available systems, subsystems, and types. media-type "string"; See above. Variables that can be used with the match statement A partial list of variables and their possible values that can be used to- gether with the match statement. The variables are published by the bus based on characteristics of the device that generated the event (for device events). Variables for other classes of events are dependent on those events. Variable Description * The entire message from the current event. _ The entire message from the current event, after the initial type character. timestamp The time this event was processed, in seconds since 1970 dot fraction. bus Device name of parent bus. cdev Device node path if one is created by the devfs(4) filesys- tem. class Device class. comm Executable name (kernel). core Path to core file (kernel). device Device ID. devclass Device Class (USB). devsubclass Device Sub-class (USB). device-name Name of attached/detached device. endpoints Endpoint count (USB). function Card functions. interface Interface ID (USB). intclass Interface Class (USB). intprotocol Interface Protocol (USB). intsubclass Interface Sub-class (USB). jail Jail name for the process triggering the rule (RCTL). mode Peripheral mode (USB). notify Match the value of the "notify" variable. parent Parent device. pid PID of the process triggering the rule (RCTL). port Hub port number (USB). product Product ID (USB). release Hardware revision (USB). ruid Real UID of the process triggering the rule (RCTL). rule Rule (RCTL). sernum Serial Number (USB). slot Card slot. subvendor Sub-vendor ID (PCI). subdevice Sub-device ID (PCI). subsystem Matches a subsystem of a system, see below. system Matches a system type, see below. type Type of notification, see below. vendor Vendor ID. Notify matching A partial list of systems, subsystems, and types used within the notify mechanism. System Subsystem Type Description ACPI Events related to the ACPI Subsystem. ACPI ACAD AC line state ($notify=0x00 is offline, 0x01 is online). ACPI Button Button state ($notify=0x00 is power, 0x01 is sleep). ACPI CMBAT Battery events. ACPI Dock Dock state ($notify=0x00 is undocked, 0x01 is docked). ACPI Lid Lid state ($notify=0x00 is closed, 0x01 is open). ACPI PROCESSOR Processor state/configuration ($no- tify=0x81 is a change in available Cx states). ACPI Resume Resume notification. ACPI Suspend Suspend notification. ACPI Thermal Thermal zone events. System Subsystem Type Description AEON power press The power button on an Amiga has been pressed. System Subsystem Type Description CAM Events related to the cam(4) system. CAM periph Events related to peripheral devices. CAM periph error Generic errors. CAM periph timeout Command timeouts. System Subsystem Type Description CARP Events related to the carp(4) protocol. CARP vhid@inet The "subsystem" contains the actual CARP vhid and the name of the network inter- face on which the event took place. CARP vhid@inet MASTER Node become the master for a virtual host. CARP vhid@inet BACKUP Node become the backup for a virtual host. System Subsystem Type Description coretemp Events related to the coretemp(4) device. coretemp Thermal Notification that the CPU core has reached critical temperature. coretemp Thermal temperature String containing the temperature of the core that has become too hot. System Subsystem Type Description DEVFS DEVFS CDEV CREATE The devfs(4) node is created. DEVFS CDEV DESTROY The devfs(4) node is destroyed. System Subsystem Type Description ETHERNET inet IFATTACH Notification when the default VNET in- stance of the inet interface is at- tached. System Subsystem Type Description GEOM Events related to the geom(4) framework. The difference compared to DEVFS is that GEOM only includes disk-like devices. GEOM DEV CREATE A geom(4) provider is cre- ated. GEOM DEV DESTROY A geom(4) provider is de- stroyed. GEOM DEV GEOM::physpath The physical path of a device has changed. GEOM DEV GEOM::rotation_rate The rotation rate of the disk has changed. GEOM DEV MEDIACHANGE Physical media has changed. GEOM DEV SIZECHANGE A geom(4) provider size has changed. System Subsystem Type Description IFNET IFNET inet The "subsystem" is the actual name of the network interface on which the event took place. IFNET inet LINK_UP Carrier status changed to UP. IFNET inet LINK_DOWN Carrier status changed to DOWN. IFNET inet ATTACH The network interface is attached to the system. IFNET inet DETACH The network interface is detached from the system. IFNET inet RENAME The network interface is renamed. IFNET inet ADDR_ADD The network interface address added. IFNET inet ADDR_DEL The network interface address removed. System Subsystem Type Description kernel signal coredump Notification that a process has crashed and dumped core. kernel power resume Notification that the system has woken from the suspended state. System Subsystem Type Description nvme controller Controller events provide the con- troller name (for example, nvme0) in $name. nvme controller SMART_ERROR A SMART Critical Warning State change has happened. $state has a hex bit- mask of the bits that changed, as de- fined in the NVMe Standard for Criti- cal Warning field of log page 2 "SMART / Health Information Log": Bit Value Meaning 0x1 Spare capacity below threshold 0x2 Temperature outside ac- ceptable range 0x4 Reliability of media de- graded 0x8 Media placed into read- only mode 0x10 Volatime memory backup failure 0x20 Persistent memory read- only or degraded nvme controller RESET A controller reset event has hap- pened. $event is one of "start", "success", and "timed_out" represent- ing the start of a controller reset, the successful completion of a con- troller reset, or a timeout while waiting for the controller to reset, respectively. nvme controller RECONNECT An NVMe over Fabrics host has discon- nected and is requesting a reconnect. System Subsystem Type Description PMU Notification of events from various types of Power Manage- ment Units. PMU AC Notifications of AC power re- lated events. PMU AC overvoltage An over-voltage condition was detected on the AC power line. PMU AC plugged Power has been applied to the AC power line. PMU AC unplugged Power has been removed from the AC power line. PMU Battery PMU Battery absent Battery is no longer absent. PMU Battery charged The battery has become charged. PMU Battery charging The battery has started charg- ing. PMU Battery disconnected The battery has been discon- nected. PMU Battery high-temp The battery reported a temper- ature over the limit. PMU Battery low-temp The battery reported a temper- ature under the limit. PMU Battery plugged The battery has become plugged (eg connected). PMU Battery shutdown-threshold The power in the battery has fallen below the shutdown threshold. PMU Battery warning-threshold The power in the battery has fallen below the warn the user threshold. PMU Button pressed A button on a adb(4) or pmu(4) has been pressed. PMU keys One of the keys on the adb(4) keyboard has been pressed. PMU keys brightness A brightness level change has been requested. Direction is in the $notify variable. PMU keys mute The mute key PMU keys volume A volume level change has been requested. Direction is in the $notify variable. PMU keys eject An ejection has been re- quested. PMU lid close The pmc(4) device has detected the lid closing. PMU lid open The pmc(4) device has detected the lid openinging. PMU POWER ACLINE The pmc(4) device has detected an AC line state ($notify=0x00 is offline, 0x01 is online). PMU USB overvoltage An over-voltage condition on the power lines for the USB power pins. PMU USB plugged A device has been plugged into a USB device. PMU USB undervoltage An under-voltage condition on the power lines for the USB power pins. PMU USB unplugged A device has been unplugged from a USB device. System Subsystem Type Description RCTL Events related to the rctl(8) framework. RCTL rule matched A rule with action specified as "devctl" was triggered. System Subsystem Type Description USB Events related to the USB subsystem. USB DEVICE ATTACH USB device is attached to the system. USB DEVICE DETACH USB device is detached to the system. USB INTERFACE ATTACH USB interface is attached to a device. USB INTERFACE DETACH USB interface is detached from a device. System Subsystem Type Description VFS Events from the vfs system. VFS FS Events that change what is mounted to the system. VFS FS MOUNT Notification of a filesystem is mounted for the first time. VFS FS REMOUNT Notification of a filesystem is re- mounted (whether or not the options ac- tually change). VFS FS UNMOUNT Notification of a filesystem being un- mounted. System Subsystem Type Description VT BELL RING Notification that the console bell has rung. See vt(4) for details. System Subsystem Type Description ZFS ZFS Events about the ZFS subsystem. See zfsd(8) and /etc/devd/zfs.conf for de- tails. System Subsystem Type Description SND Events related to the sound(4) driver. SND CONN IN Connected input device specified in cdev variable. SND CONN OUT Connected output device specified in cdev variable. SND CONN NODEV No connected devices. A link state change to UP on the interface "fxp0" would result in the fol- lowing notify event: system=IFNET subsystem=fxp0 type=LINK_UP An AC line state change to "offline" would result in the following event: system=ACPI subsystem=ACAD notify=0x00 Comments Comments may appear anywhere that whitespace may appear in a configuration file. To appeal to programmers of all kinds, they can be written in C, C++, or shell/Perl constructs. C-style comments start with the two characters `/*' (slash, star) and end with `*/' (star, slash). Because they are completely delimited with these characters, they can be used to comment only a portion of a line or to span multiple lines. C-style comments cannot be nested. For example, the following is not valid because the entire comment ends with the first `*/': /* This is the start of a comment. This is still part of the comment. /* This is an incorrect attempt at nesting a comment. */ This is no longer in any comment. */ C++-style comments start with the two characters `//' (slash, slash) and continue to the end of the physical line. They cannot be continued across multiple physical lines; to have one logical comment span multiple lines, each line must use the `//' pair. For example: // This is the start of a comment. The next line // is a new comment, even though it is logically // part of the previous comment. Notes on Variable Expansion Variables are expanded by preceding them by a "$" sign. Any text immedi- ately following that sign, starting with a letter, a minus sign "-", an un- derscore "_", or an asterisk "*" is considered an internal variable, and expanded accordingly. If that variable does not exist, it silently expands to an empty string. Consequently, if the intention is to pass a sh(1) variable, it must be surrounded by braces to prevent it from being consid- ered an internal variable. See "EXAMPLES" for a detailed example. To prevent issues with special shell characters, the following happens for each variable $foo. 1. The characters "$'" are inserted. 2. The string "$foo" is removed. 3. The value of the foo variable is inserted into the buffer with all single quote characters prefixed by a backslash. 4. A final "'" is inserted. See sh(1) for what this construct means. It is safe in all context, except one: inside single quotes. If foo=meta and bar=var, then a rule like the following: action "echo '$foo $bar'"; will be presented to the shell via system(3) as echo '$'meta' $'var'' which produces the following output: $meta $var as its output. This is an unanticipated result. A future version of this software will change this behavior. Users are discouraged from using sin- gle quotes inside action value without due care. The above should be written as action "echo $foo' '$bar" to produce a single argument to echo. Given the above expansion, juxtapos- ing bare variables with single quote expressions will produce the right output, regardless of the value of the variable. FILES /etc/devd.conf The devd(8) configuration file. /etc/devd A directory that devd searches for additional configuration files. /usr/local/etc/devd A directory that devd searches for additional configuration files. EXAMPLES # # This will catch link down events on the interfaces fxp0 and ath0 # notify 0 { match "system" "IFNET"; match "subsystem" "(fxp0|ath0)"; match "type" "LINK_DOWN"; action "logger $subsystem is DOWN"; }; # # Match lid open/close events # These can be combined to a single event, by passing the # value of $notify to the external script. # notify 0 { match "system" "ACPI"; match "subsystem" "Lid"; match "notify" "0x00"; action "logger Lid closed, we can sleep now!"; }; notify 0 { match "system" "ACPI"; match "subsystem" "Lid"; match "notify" "0x01"; action "logger Lid opened, the sleeper must awaken!"; }; # # Match a USB device type # notify 0 { match "system" "USB"; match "subsystem" "INTERFACE"; match "type" "ATTACH"; match "intclass" "0x0e"; action "logger USB video device attached"; }; # # Try to configure ath and iwn devices with pccard_ether # as they are attached. # attach 0 { device-name "(ath|iwn)[0-9]+"; action "/etc/pccard_ether $device-name start"; }; # # Stop ath and iwn devices as they are detached from # the system. # detach 0 { device-name "(ath|iwn)[0-9]+"; action "/etc/pccard_ether $device-name stop"; }; The following example illustrates the difference betwen internal and shell variables: attach 20 { device-name "umodem[0-9]+"; match "vendor" "0x2047"; match "product" "0x001(0|3|4)"; match "interface" "0"; action "cd /dev; p=$product; dn=$device-name; \ un=$(sysctl -n dev.umodem.${dn#umodem}.ttyname); \ chmod 666 cua${un}; ln -sf cua${un} mspfet${p#0x}"; }; "product", and "device-name" are internal variables. Their contents are initially assigned to shell variables "p", and "dn", respectively. Then, variable "dn" is used inside a shell command substitution, assigning to shell variable "un". Finally, this shell variable is used in two other shell statements, where it needs to be wrapped in braces in order to pre- vent it from being considered in internal variable to devd. The installed /etc/devd.conf has many additional examples. SEE ALSO cam(4), coretemp(4), devfs(4), re_format(7), devd(8) BUGS The variable expansion's interaction with single quotes is suboptimal and surprising. FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly February 26, 2026 DEVD.CONF(5)
NAME | DESCRIPTION | FILES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | BUGS
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