Usb.Events 10.1.1

Usb.Events

Subscribe to the Inserted and Removed events to be notified when a USB drive is plugged in or unplugged, or when a USB device is connected or disconnected. Usb.Events is a .NET Standard 2.0 library and uses WMI on Windows, libudev on Linux and IOKit on macOS.

How to use:

1. Include NuGet package from https://www.nuget.org/packages/Usb.Events

    <ItemGroup>
        <PackageReference Include="Usb.Events" Version="10.1.1.0" />
    </ItemGroup>
   

2. Subscribe to events:

    using Usb.Events;
   
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] _)
        {
            using IUsbEventWatcher usbEventWatcher = new UsbEventWatcher();
   
            usbEventWatcher.UsbDeviceRemoved += (_, device) => Console.WriteLine("Removed:" + Environment.NewLine + device + Environment.NewLine);
   
            usbEventWatcher.UsbDeviceAdded += (_, device) => Console.WriteLine("Added:" + Environment.NewLine + device + Environment.NewLine);
   
            usbEventWatcher.UsbDriveEjected += (_, path) => Console.WriteLine("Ejected:" + Environment.NewLine + path + Environment.NewLine);
   
            usbEventWatcher.UsbDriveMounted += (_, path) =>
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Mounted:" + Environment.NewLine + path + Environment.NewLine);
   
                foreach (string entry in Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(path))
                    Console.WriteLine(entry);
   
                Console.WriteLine();
            };
   
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
   

Constructor parameters:

UsbEventWatcher(
    bool startImmediately = true, 
    bool addAlreadyPresentDevicesToList = false, 
    bool usePnPEntity = false, 
    bool includeTTY = false)

• Set startImmediately to false if you don't want to start immediately, then call Start(bool includeTTY = false).
• Set addAlreadyPresentDevicesToList to true if you want UsbDeviceList to include devices that were already present.
• Set usePnPEntity to true if you want the watcher to query Win32_PnPEntity instead of Win32_USBControllerDevice.
• Set includeTTY to true if you want to monitor the TTY subsystem in Linux (besides the USB subsystem).

Using Win32_PnPEntity vs Win32_USBControllerDevice

• Win32_PnPEntity
  • PRO: works for all devices
  • CON: is CPU intensive
  • CON: uses only 2 methods to find MountedDirectoryPath for storage devices (this should still work for most devices)
• Win32_USBControllerDevice
  • PRO: uses 3 methods to find MountedDirectoryPath for storage devices
  • PRO: in not CPU intensive
  • CON: for some devices it can stop reporting UsbDeviceAdded event after the device is added and removed a few times

Using Win32_USBControllerDevice is usually the better option.

Example:

Usb.Events.Example demonstrates how to use Windows SetupAPI.dll functions SetupDiGetClassDevs, SetupDiEnumDeviceInfo and SetupDiGetDeviceProperty together with DEVPKEY_Device_DeviceDesc, DEVPKEY_Device_BusReportedDeviceDesc and DEVPKEY_Device_FriendlyName to get "Device description", "Bus reported device description" and "Friendly name" of the Usb.Events.UsbDevice reported by the Usb.Events.IUsbEventWatcher.UsbDeviceAdded event.

How to build:

Usb.Events.csproj uses gcc to build UsbEventWatcher.Mac.dylib from UsbEventWatcher.Mac.c when run on macOS and to build UsbEventWatcher.Linux.so from UsbEventWatcher.Linux.c when run on Linux.

  <Target Name="BuildNonWindowsNative" Condition="'$(OS)' != 'Windows_NT'" BeforeTargets="Build">
    <Exec Condition="'$(IsMacOS)' == 'true'"
          WorkingDirectory=".\"
          Command="gcc -shared ./Mac/UsbEventWatcher.Mac.c -o UsbEventWatcher.Mac.dylib -framework CoreFoundation -framework DiskArbitration -framework IOKit" />
    <Exec Condition="'$(IsMacOS)' != 'true'"
          WorkingDirectory=".\"
          Command="gcc -shared ./Linux/UsbEventWatcher.Linux.c -o UsbEventWatcher.Linux.so -ludev -fPIC" />
  </Target>

Usb.Events.dll expects to find UsbEventWatcher.Linux.so and UsbEventWatcher.Mac.dylib in the working directory when it runs, so make sure to build the project on Linux and Mac before building the NuGet package on Windows.

TO DO:

• Automatically mount USB drive on UsbDeviceAdded event in Linux
• Automatically mount USB drive on UsbDeviceAdded event in macOS

Version history:

• 10.1.1.0:
  • Fixed Dispose() to exit native monitor loop in Linux
  • Added bool usePnPEntity to use Win32_PnPEntity in Windows
• 10.1.0.1:
  • Added bool addAlreadyPresentDevicesToList in Windows
• 10.1.0.0:
  • Updated System.Management package reference from 4.7.0 to 7.0.0
• 10.0.1.1:
  • Added bool startImmediately = true to UsbEventWatcher constructor
  • Added void Start(bool includeTTY = false) to IUsbEventWatcher
• 10.0.1.0:
  • Added bool includeTTY = false to UsbEventWatcher constructor
  • Fixed a EnumerateDevices bug in Linux - thanks to @d79ima
• 10.0.0.1:
  • Fixed a false "device added" events bug in Linux - thanks to @d79ima
• 10.0.0.0:
  • Fixed a NullReferenceException in Linux and macOS - by @thomOrbelius
• 1.1.1.1:
  • Fixed a bug in Windows where MountedDirectoryPath wasn't set for a disk drive - thanks to @cksoft0807
• 1.1.1.0:
  • Fixed a memory leak in Linux function GetLinuxMountPoint - by @maskimthedog
  • Fixed a bug in Linux where after instantiating UsbEventWatcher, the list of devices was empty - by @maskimthedog
  • Added monitoring of TTY subsystem in Linux - by @maskimthedog
  • Fixed a bug in Linux where monitoring would stop upon error - by @maskimthedog
• 1.1.0.1:
  • Fixed a bug
• 1.1.0.0:
  • Added:
    • MountedDirectoryPath
    • IsMounted
    • IsEjected
  • Breaking changes:
    • DevicePath renamed to DeviceSystemPath
    • UsbDriveInserted renamed to UsbDriveMounted
    • UsbDriveRemoved renamed to UsbDriveEjected
    • UsbDeviceInserted renamed to UsbDeviceAdded
• 1.0.1.1:
  • Fixed a bug
• 1.0.1.0:
  • Events for all USB devices
• 1.0.0.1:
  • Fixed a bug
• 1.0.0.0:
  • Events for USB drives and USB storage devices