Terminal - Exploring External Volumes?

RadDave · May 25, 2013

New MBP/iMac user and trying to learn a little about the 'Terminal' in Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.3) - about a third of a way through the Kindle edition of the book below, and reading a section entitled 'Exploring External Volumes' - the author states to go to the /Volumes directory to view the available discs, then shows what happens after plugging in an iPod & digital camera; both appear in his printout using the 'ls -l' command - well, I plugged in my iPod and subsequently my iPad 2 - neither appeared to mount in the /Volumes directory; SO, just curious if this is even possible on a non-JB iDevice? Thanks for comments -

simsaladimbamba · May 25, 2013

Since those devices are not meant for data storage like inn the traditional meaning, browsing those devices via the volumes folder will not work. Only devices that would normally show up in Finder will be browse able due to having a file system.

w0lf · May 25, 2013

Non-jailbroken device is pretty locked down, I don't think it's mounted normally and even if it is you wouldn't be able to access much aside from maybe the photos folder.

RadDave · May 26, 2013

Thanks for your responses - you're right, neither device showed up in the /Volumes folder - now, this book was published in 2012 and is Mountain Lion specific - don't understand why the author discussed this apparent non-existent option in the terminal? Dave

chrfr · May 26, 2013

RadDave said:
Thanks for your responses - you're right, neither device showed up in the /Volumes folder - now, this book was published in 2012 and is Mountain Lion specific - don't understand why the author discussed this apparent non-existent option in the terminal? Dave

It's not a non-existent option. Somewhat earlier iPods, and any other disk, such as a USB flash drive or hard disk or DVD, will be mounted in /Volumes.

RadDave · May 26, 2013

chrfr said:
It's not a non-existent option. Somewhat earlier iPods, and any other disk, such as a USB flash drive or hard disk or DVD, will be mounted in /Volumes.

Well, I plugged in my SuperDrive & my Seagate external HD (used for TM backups) - the HD appeared immediately in /Volumes, but not the SuperDrive until I inserted a CD. My iPod is an older one (2G) w/ iOS 4.2.1 (most that it can be upgraded) - just my MP3 player, so not that important for me to see it in the terminal - thanks.

chrfr · May 26, 2013

RadDave said:
the HD appeared immediately in /Volumes, but not the SuperDrive until I inserted a CD.

This is normal. You're seeing volumes (disks) in /Volumes, not devices.

chown33 · May 26, 2013

Visit the website for the book (look in the book's Preface or Introduction, or google it).

See if there's a forum or feedback section for the book.

Give the chapter, page, etc. and tell them it doesn't work with [your iPod model here] or [your iPad model here].

Or try the same procedure, but looking for the author. I.e. the oreilly.com website, search for author, see if he/she has a website.

The O'Reilly website may also have a way for you to tell them about errors you find in their published books. Or O'Reilly may have a published list of errors for that book. The traditional publishing term for these is "errata" or "corrigenda", so if searching for "error" finds nothing, try those.

MacUser2525 · May 26, 2013

chrfr said:
This is normal. You're seeing volumes (disks) in /Volumes, not devices.

Everything is a device in a *nix operating system. At the very least an ipod should should up in the diskutil list command. Here it shows up in both commands and is shown on my Desktop.

Code:

MacUser2525:~$ ll /Volumes/
total 8
drwxr-xr-x@ 13 MacUser2525  staff   510B 28 Sep  2009 MacUser2525’s 80gb iPod/
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root         admin     1B 15 May 20:20 Mountain@ -> /
.....



MacUser2525:~$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *180.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Mountain                179.2 GB   

.....

/dev/disk7
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *79.8 GB    disk7
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         254.0 KB   disk7s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS MacUser2525’s 80gb iPod 79.8 GB    disk7s2

Edit: Should add I have it set so that iTunes does not automatically sync when it is connected.

chrfr · May 26, 2013

MacUser2525 said:
Everything is a device in a *nix operating system.

Right, but you aren't seeing anything but volumes in /Volumes.

MacUser2525 said:
At the very least an ipod should should up in the diskutil list command.

An iPod touch (as in the OP's case) or any other iOS device doesn't appear in /Volumes or in the output from diskutil list.

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