UUIDs on drives (Derek Broughton)

[Owen Townend]

2008/8/15 Chris Jeffries <chris at candm.org.uk>:
> On Fri, 2008-08-15 at 03:05 +0100, ubuntu-users-request at lists.ubuntu.com
> wrote:
>> Re: UUIDs on drives (Derek Broughton)
>
> The discussion seems to be 'Where it is' vs 'What it is'. For me, this
> isn't the big problem. I am no expert in Unix, but it seems to me that a
> system where dev/sda suddenly points you to a different device despite
> the fact you have done NOTHING to the device that you found on dev/sda
> previously is a BAD THING - and it scares me, and something SHOULD be
> done to fix that.
>
> Also I find myself getting lost amongst all the device stubs in dev
> (entries for devices that do not exist). I am sure it is just my lack of
> knowledge of Unix, but I'd like to find a database or something that
> lists all the actual devices on my machine by location, type and, where
> possible, unique id, eg with entries something like this
>
> 'dev' id: /dev/xx05
> location: system/USB_bus/USB_socket1/USB_hub/USB_socket1/
> type:     webcam
> UUID:     sefhasrhnfasorfnasrofnsro
>
> I see location as a path through the equivalent of directories, but in
> hardware, so a USB hub of a SCSI controller channel look like
> directories with folders inside in this view, and they themselves are in
> some sort of root directory called (in this example) system.
>
> Is there anything like this? I'd feel so much more in control of my fate
> if there were.
>

There isn't anything specifically like this, though all of that info
_can_ be found.
In particular is the /dev/disk structure:
$ tree -d /dev/disk
/dev/disk
|-- by-id
|-- by-label
|-- by-path
`-- by-uuid

cheers,
owen.