This package automatically mounts USB mass storage devices (typically USB pens) when they are plugged in, and unmounts them when they are removed. The mountpoints (/media/usb[0-7] by default), filesystem types to consider, and mount options are configurable. When multiple devices are plugged in, the first available mountpoint is automatically selected. If the device provides a model name, a symbolic link /var/run/usbmount/MODELNAME pointing to the mountpoint is automatically created.

The script that does the mounting is called by the udev daemon. Therefore, USBmount requires a 2.6 (or newer) Linux kernel.

Firewire devices are also supported by USBmount.

USBmount is intended as a lightweight solution which is independent of a desktop environment. Users which would like an icon to appear when an USB device is plugged in should use the pmount and hal packages instead.