Manual: eject

EJECT(1)						User Commands						    EJECT(1)

NAME
       eject - eject removable media

       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 supported 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, removable
       floppy, or tape. By default eject tries all four methods in order until it succeeds.

       If a device partition is specified, the whole-disk device is used.

       If the device or a device partition is currently mounted, it is unmounted before ejecting. The eject is processed on
       exclusive open block device file descriptor if --no-unmount or --force are not specified.

OPTIONS
       -a, --auto on|off
	   This option controls the auto-eject mode, supported by some devices. When enabled, the drive automatically 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. The CD-ROM drive cannot 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, --force
	   Force eject, don’t check device type, don’t open device with exclusive lock. The successful result may be false
	   positive on non hot-pluggable devices.

       -f, --floppy
	   This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using a removable floppy disk eject command.

       -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.

       -M, --no-partitions-unmount
	   The option tells eject to not try to unmount other partitions on partitioned devices. If another partition is
	   still mounted, the program will not attempt to eject the media. It will attempt to unmount only the device or
	   mountpoint given on the command line.

       -m, --no-unmount
	   The option tells eject to not try to unmount at all. If this option is not specified then eject opens the device
	   with O_EXCL flag to be sure that the device is not used (since v2.35).

       -n, --noop
	   With this option the selected device is displayed but no action is performed.

       -p, --proc
	   This option allows you to use /proc/mounts instead /etc/mtab. It also passes the -n option to umount(8).

       -q, --tape
	   This option specifies that the drive should be ejected using a tape drive offline 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.

       -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.

       -t, --trayclose
	   With this option the drive is given a CD-ROM tray close command. Not all devices support this command.

       -v, --verbose
	   Run in verbose mode; more information is displayed about what the command is doing.

       -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 drives may not correctly report the speed
	   and therefore this option does not work with them.

       -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 support 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.

       -h, --help
	   Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
	   Display version and exit.

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 partitions
       of the device before ejecting (see also --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 all Linux
       kernel CD-ROM drivers support the auto-eject mode. There is no way to find out the state of the auto-eject mode.

       You need appropriate privileges to access the device files. Running as root is required to eject some devices (e.g.,
       SCSI devices).

AUTHORS
       Jeff Tranter  - original author, Karel Zak  and Michal Luscon
        - util-linux version.

SEE ALSO
       findmnt(8), lsblk(8), mount(8), umount(8)

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker .

AVAILABILITY
       The eject command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       .

util-linux 2.41.3					 2025-12-15						    EJECT(1)