When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
how to do it. Alias? Or what?
--
Dieter Britz

On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
> how to do it. Alias? Or what?

USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>
> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>
Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
How do I give it a shorter name?
--
Dieter Britz

On Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:39:32 +0100, db wrote:

> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy name. How do I
>>> give it a short name? I have forgotten how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>
>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>
> Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
> How do I give it a shorter name?

It depends on what you actually want to do.

1) You can change the name of the final directory in that mount path (that
is, from KINGSTON to something else)

2) Depending on what system component actually mounted the USB drive, you
/may/ be able to change the path to that final directory (the
"/media/.../" part). If your DM's automounter mounted it for you, you
probably can't change that part; if udev mounted it for you, you might
be able to change the path, and if you mounted it by hand, you can
definitely change that part.

3) If you can't change the path, you can make a symlink to that path from
a more convenient place (ie /mnt/MYDRIVE, which symlinks to
/media/.../KINGSTON)

So, how about a little more detail.

How did you manage to mount the USB drive? By hand, by udev, or by
automount?

What part of the path do you want to shorten? What would you like
to shorten it to?

--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills We Trust"

On 09/02/2023 15:39, db wrote:
> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>
>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>
>  Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
> How do I give it a shorter name?

You can rename it to something shorter like PORN

You can create a link to /home/you/media from e.g., your desktop so you
now have ~/desktop/PORN.
etc...

--
“Ideas are inherently conservative. They yield not to the attack of
other ideas but to the massive onslaught of circumstance"

- John K Galbraith

On 2023-02-09 16:39, db wrote:
> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>
>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>
>  Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
> How do I give it a shorter name?

It depends on what distro you are using.

For example, on openSUSE, the default is "/run/media/<user>/name". You
can change it to /media/name by creating file
/etc/udev/rules.d/99-correct-media-mount-point.rules with line (single
line):

ENV{ID_FS_USAGE}=="filesystem|other|crypto",
ENV{UDISKS_FILESYSTEM_SHARED}="1"

and run and "udevadm control --reload"

Make sure that /media does exist in advance.

Other distros may have other tricks.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 2023-02-09 18:54, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2023-02-09 16:39, db wrote:
>> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>>
>>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>>
>>   Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
>> How do I give it a shorter name?
>
> It depends on what distro you are using.

With some distros, creating an entry in fstab (noauto,user) works.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On Thu, 09 Feb 2023 13:05:37 -0500, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

> On 2023-02-09 18:54, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 16:39, db wrote:
>>> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>>>
>>>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>>>
>>> Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
>>> How do I give it a shorter name?
>>
>> It depends on what distro you are using.
>
> With some distros, creating an entry in fstab (noauto,user) works.

Another technique is to assign a label to the file system on the usb stick.
The label will be used in the directory name used for the mountpoint instead
of using the uuid.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

On 2023-02-09 19:14, David W. Hodgins wrote:
> On Thu, 09 Feb 2023 13:05:37 -0500, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 18:54, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>>> On 2023-02-09 16:39, db wrote:
>>>> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>>>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>>>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>>>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>>>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>>>>
>>>>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>>>>
>>>>   Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
>>>> How do I give it a shorter name?
>>>
>>> It depends on what distro you are using.
>>
>> With some distros, creating an entry in fstab (noauto,user) works.
>
> Another technique is to assign a label to the file system on the usb stick.
> The label will be used in the directory name used for the mountpoint
> instead of using the uuid.

Right.

I forgot that, because all my filesystems have labels :-)

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 2/9/23 10:39 AM, db wrote:
> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>
>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>
>  Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
> How do I give it a shorter name?

If it's semi-permanent just make a symlink with a
name like "U1" or something,

Otherwise, every time you plug it in there's a chance
it'll have a different "long name/path". Not USUALLY
true, but it CAN happen and spoil schemes. Something
like a simple Python script can LOOK for it in /proc/mounts
and then create/edit the symlink - but you've gotta run
the Python pgm every time you plug in (no, I'm NOT gonna
even try to get into how to do that automagically).

I've got a backup pgm for a Pi with a USB-HDD attached,
but IT does the look-up when it runs, there's nothing
"automatic" about it.

On 2/9/23 1:21 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2023-02-09 19:14, David W. Hodgins wrote:
>> On Thu, 09 Feb 2023 13:05:37 -0500, Carlos E. R.
>> <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>>> On 2023-02-09 18:54, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>>>> On 2023-02-09 16:39, db wrote:
>>>>> On 09.02.2023 11.55, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>>>>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>>>>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>>>>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>>>>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>>>>>
>>>>>   Sigh... a USB stick, which appears e.g. as "/media/.../KINGSTON".
>>>>> How do I give it a shorter name?
>>>>
>>>> It depends on what distro you are using.
>>>
>>> With some distros, creating an entry in fstab (noauto,user) works.
>>
>> Another technique is to assign a label to the file system on the usb
>> stick.
>> The label will be used in the directory name used for the mountpoint
>> instead of using the uuid.
>
> Right.
>
> I forgot that, because all my filesystems have labels :-)

Wise. Very wise.

UUIDs may have their place, but ......

ANYway, /proc/mounts will have info on everything
that's mounted (in Deb derivs anyhow). You can
'cat' it and Python can open and readlines() the
thing too. Just tuesday I used that to confirm a
programmatic mount actually "took" before trying
to do anything with it. Arch/RH derivs likely
have something similar, just in different places.
I seem to remember stuff in "/sys", maybe 'devices',
buried several dirs down .....

On 2023-02-09, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>
> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>

"e2label" might do what you want.

use e2label or tune2fs -L to give big long parition names a new, easier
name.
NAME
e2label - Change the label on an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem

So don't know if it will work on USB sticks/names.

pH in Aptos

On 2023-02-10 21:41, pH wrote:
> On 2023-02-09, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>
>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>
>
> "e2label" might do what you want.
>
> use e2label or tune2fs -L to give big long parition names a new, easier
> name.
> NAME
> e2label - Change the label on an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem
>
>
>
> So don't know if it will work on USB sticks/names.

Yes, if the filesystem is ext2/3/4

For a generic and GUI method, use gparted.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 10/02/2023 20:41, pH wrote:
> On 2023-02-09, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>
>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>
>
> "e2label" might do what you want.
>
> use e2label or tune2fs -L to give big long parition names a new, easier
> name.
> NAME
> e2label - Change the label on an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem
>
>
>
> So don't know if it will work on USB sticks/names.
>
It does. First thing I do is rename my sticks.

And you can relabel FAT32 sticks too.
I cant remember how to do it.

--
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the
other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

—Soren Kierkegaard

On 11/02/2023 at 09.22, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> "e2label" might do what you want.
>>
>> use e2label or tune2fs -L to give big long parition names a new, easier
>> name.
>> NAME
>> e2label - Change the label on an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem
>>
>> So don't know if it will work on USB sticks/names.
>>
> It does. First thing I do is rename my sticks.
>
> And you can relabel FAT32 sticks too.
> I cant remember how to do it.

fatlabel(8)

--
mrg

On 2023-02-11 09:22, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 10/02/2023 20:41, pH wrote:
>> On 2023-02-09, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>>
>>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>>
>>
>> "e2label" might do what you want.
>>
>> use e2label or tune2fs -L to give big long parition names a new, easier
>> name.
>> NAME
>>         e2label - Change the label on an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem
>>
>>
>>
>> So don't know if it will work on USB sticks/names.
>>
> It does. First thing I do is rename my sticks.
>
> And you can relabel FAT32 sticks too.
> I cant remember how to do it.

cer@Telcontar:~> apropos label | grep fat
fatlabel (8) - set or get MS-DOS filesystem label
cer@Telcontar:~>

Also:

mlabel (1) - make an MSDOS volume label

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 11/02/2023 10:29, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2023-02-11 09:22, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> On 10/02/2023 20:41, pH wrote:
>>> On 2023-02-09, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>>>> On 2023-02-09 11:28, db wrote:
>>>>> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
>>>>> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
>>>>> how to do it. Alias? Or what?
>>>>
>>>> USB what? A keyboard? A mouse? A scanner? A printer? A modem?
>>>>
>>>
>>> "e2label" might do what you want.
>>>
>>> use e2label or tune2fs -L to give big long parition names a new, easier
>>> name.
>>> NAME
>>>         e2label - Change the label on an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> So don't know if it will work on USB sticks/names.
>>>
>> It does. First thing I do is rename my sticks.
>>
>> And you can relabel FAT32 sticks too.
>> I cant remember how to do it.
>
> cer@Telcontar:~> apropos label | grep fat
> fatlabel (8)         - set or get MS-DOS filesystem label
> cer@Telcontar:~>
>
I certainly didnt use that. Some GUI tool that came with MINT.
Gnome-disks.

Under 'edit filesystem' is the option to change labels

> Also:
>
> mlabel (1)           - make an MSDOS volume label
>
>

--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.
-- Yogi Berra

db schrieb am 9.02.23:

> When I want to operate on a USB, it has a long unwieldy
> name. How do I give it a short name? I have forgotten
> how to do it. Alias? Or what?

Strangely there seems to be a competition to find the most comoplicated way
here in the thread.
The disk managing/formating tool provided by your distribution should be
able to edit the USB-stick's label. In my distribututio it is
gnome-disks...

MfG
Gerald

--
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However
a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:33:43 -0500, Gerald Gruner <gerald314@yahoo.de> wrote:
> Strangely there seems to be a competition to find the most comoplicated way
> here in the thread.
> The disk managing/formating tool provided by your distribution should be
> able to edit the USB-stick's label. In my distribututio it is
> gnome-disks...

As this is a linux newsgroup rather then a gnome newsgroup, indicating
the command line tools that the desktop environment gui tool uses in the
background is appropriate.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

On 11/02/2023 15:59, David W. Hodgins wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:33:43 -0500, Gerald Gruner <gerald314@yahoo.de>
> wrote:
>> Strangely there seems to be a competition to find the most
>> comoplicated way
>> here in the thread.
>> The disk managing/formating tool provided by your distribution should be
>> able to edit the USB-stick's label. In my distribututio it is
>> gnome-disks...
>
> As this is a linux newsgroup rather then a gnome newsgroup, indicating
> the command line tools that the desktop environment gui tool uses in the
> background is appropriate.
>
> Regards, Dave Hodgins

Gnome is built over linux.

Anyone who is running a GUI will have a GUI based disk editing tool

Gparted,
Gnome-disk
KDE partition manager
to name but three.

--
"Nature does not give up the winter because people dislike the cold."

― Confucius

On 2023-02-11 17:52, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 11/02/2023 15:59, David W. Hodgins wrote:
>> On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:33:43 -0500, Gerald Gruner <gerald314@yahoo.de>
>> wrote:
>>> Strangely there seems to be a competition to find the most
>>> comoplicated way
>>> here in the thread.
>>> The disk managing/formating tool provided by your distribution should be
>>> able to edit the USB-stick's label. In my distribututio it is
>>> gnome-disks...
>>
>> As this is a linux newsgroup rather then a gnome newsgroup, indicating
>> the command line tools that the desktop environment gui tool uses in the
>> background is appropriate.
>>
>> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>
> Gnome is built over linux.
>
> Anyone who is running a GUI will have a GUI based disk editing tool
>
> Gparted,
> Gnome-disk
> KDE partition manager
> to name but three.

YaST.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 11/02/2023 15:59, David W. Hodgins wrote:
>> On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:33:43 -0500, Gerald Gruner <gerald314@yahoo.de>
>> wrote:
>>> Strangely there seems to be a competition to find the most
>>> comoplicated way here in the thread.
>>> The disk managing/formating tool provided by your distribution should be
>>> able to edit the USB-stick's label. In my distribututio it is
>>> gnome-disks...
>>
>> As this is a linux newsgroup rather then a gnome newsgroup, indicating
>> the command line tools that the desktop environment gui tool uses in the
>> background is appropriate.
>
> Gnome is built over linux.
>
> Anyone who is running a GUI will have a GUI based disk editing tool
>
> Gparted,
> Gnome-disk
> KDE partition manager
> to name but three.

I don't here, and I know of at least a couple of distros that don't
come with one by default even though they have a GUI. Most people
who use them probably don't need to ask questions like this though.

Not all distros use partition labels to create mount point
directories by default either, for that matter.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

On 2/11/23 1:06 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2023-02-11 17:52, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> On 11/02/2023 15:59, David W. Hodgins wrote:
>>> On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:33:43 -0500, Gerald Gruner
>>> <gerald314@yahoo.de> wrote:
>>>> Strangely there seems to be a competition to find the most
>>>> comoplicated way
>>>> here in the thread.
>>>> The disk managing/formating tool provided by your distribution
>>>> should be
>>>> able to edit the USB-stick's label. In my distribututio it is
>>>> gnome-disks...
>>>
>>> As this is a linux newsgroup rather then a gnome newsgroup, indicating
>>> the command line tools that the desktop environment gui tool uses in the
>>> background is appropriate.
>>>
>>> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>>
>> Gnome is built over linux.
>>
>> Anyone who is running a GUI will have a GUI based disk editing tool
>>
>> Gparted,
>> Gnome-disk
>> KDE partition manager
>> to name but three.
>
> YaST.

The YAST disk-manager/formatter does deliver much finer setup
control, much more simply, than GParted or anything else.
There are all sorts of fine tweaks you can pick - including
things like sector size ... ie do you expect mass quantities
of small files or fewer huge files to be stored. Yea, some
other CL utilities can do that, but only with lots of often
obscure and poorly documented CL params.

I kinda gave up on SUSE/OpenSuse after IBM took over RH.
Non-paying users are likely to get the "beta", or worse,
code - guinea pigs for IBM/RH testing. SUSE is an RPM
distro and borrows heavily from the RHEL repos. The final
straw was when they removed hddtemp and put an inferior
version of ffmpeg in there ..... <giant flushing sound>

Still, for MOST users/needs, gparted is by far the easiest,
most transparent, way to do disks.

On 2023-02-14 06:53, 25B.R867 wrote:
> On 2/11/23 1:06 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>> On 2023-02-11 17:52, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>> On 11/02/2023 15:59, David W. Hodgins wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 10:33:43 -0500, Gerald Gruner
>>>> <gerald314@yahoo.de> wrote:
>>>>> Strangely there seems to be a competition to find the most
>>>>> comoplicated way
>>>>> here in the thread.
>>>>> The disk managing/formating tool provided by your distribution
>>>>> should be
>>>>> able to edit the USB-stick's label. In my distribututio it is
>>>>> gnome-disks...
>>>>
>>>> As this is a linux newsgroup rather then a gnome newsgroup, indicating
>>>> the command line tools that the desktop environment gui tool uses in
>>>> the
>>>> background is appropriate.
>>>>
>>>> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>>>
>>> Gnome is built over linux.
>>>
>>> Anyone who is running a GUI will have a GUI based disk editing tool
>>>
>>> Gparted,
>>> Gnome-disk
>>> KDE partition manager
>>> to name but three.
>>
>> YaST.
>
>   The YAST disk-manager/formatter does deliver much finer setup
>   control, much more simply, than GParted or anything else.
>   There are all sorts of fine tweaks you can pick - including
>   things like sector size ... ie do you expect mass quantities
>   of small files or fewer huge files to be stored. Yea, some
>   other CL utilities can do that, but only with lots of often
>   obscure and poorly documented CL params.
>
>   I kinda gave up on SUSE/OpenSuse after IBM took over RH.
>   Non-paying users are likely to get the "beta", or worse,
>   code - guinea pigs for IBM/RH testing. SUSE is an RPM
>   distro and borrows heavily from the RHEL repos. The final
>   straw was when they removed hddtemp and put an inferior
>   version of ffmpeg in there ..... <giant flushing sound>

Your ideas of openSUSE are obsolete.

>
>   Still, for MOST users/needs, gparted is by far the easiest,
>   most transparent, way to do disks.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

25B.R867 <25B.R867@noaaada.net> wrote:
> There are all sorts of fine tweaks you can pick - including
> things like sector size

Sector size is fixed by the disk manufacturer when they create the
disk, and for mechanical drives is either 512 bytes or 4096 bytes.

You are likely referring to "cluster size" which is a different
concept, but is one in which you get to 'tweak' when making a given
filesystem.