Mac OS X Panther in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

hdiutil

Synopsis

hdiutil command [cmd-specific_args_and_opts] [-quiet | -verbose | -debug] 
[-plist]

Manages disk images, performing some of the same functions as the Disk Utility application. The Options section highlights some common uses, but the full set of commands (and associated arguments and options) is extensive and isn’t detailed here. See the hdiutil manpage or run hdiutil help for more assistance.

Options

attach

Attach a disk image to a device node and mount it. As arguments, it takes the filename of a disk image and a possible list of options, some of which are:

-autoopenrw

Automatically open read/write volumes in the Finder after they’re mounted.

-help

Print a usage summary to standard output.

-mountpoint

If there’s only one volume in the disk image, mount it at mount point specified as an argument, instead of under /Volumes/.

-mountroot

Mount volumes under a directory specified as an argument instead of under /Volumes/.

-noautoopenro

Disable automatic opening of read-only volumes in the Finder after they’re mounted.

-nomount

Create device nodes in /dev and attach the image or its partitions to them, but don’t mount them.

-noverify

Disable verification of disk images containing checksums.

-readonly

Disable write access to the mounted image.

-shadow

Pass modifications to the disk image through to a shadow image. Subsequent access to the modified data will be from the shadow, which allows effective read/write access to data on a disk image that shouldn’t or can’t be ...