Write a udev rule that runs a custom script automatically when a specific device is plugged in on Linux
domain: man7.org · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Identify the device's matching attributes (SUBSYSTEM, KERNEL name, vendor/product IDs, etc.) with a device inspection tool such as udevadm info, so the rule matches only the intended device.
Create a new rule file under /etc/udev/rules.d/ (local, admin-authored rules take precedence over vendor-shipped rules under /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/), naming it so its lexical order runs where intended.
Write a match line combining fields such as SUBSYSTEM== and ACTION==, plus device identifier fields, followed by a RUN+= assignment pointing at the script to execute.
Make the target script executable and give it a proper shebang, since udev does not execute RUN targets inside a shell or terminal context and expects a directly runnable program.
Reload the rules with `udevadm control --reload-rules` and re-trigger with `udevadm trigger`, then test by re-plugging the device and checking `udevadm monitor` or the system journal to confirm the rule fired.
Known gotchas
Programs invoked via RUN+= run outside any terminal/shell context with no interactive stdout, so a script assuming an interactive shell environment (or relying on an inherited PATH) can fail silently; use absolute paths and log to a file instead of expecting console output.
Rule files are processed in lexical filename order across all rules.d directories, so a rule you add can be shadowed or overridden by another rule file that sorts earlier or later depending on its name.
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