Detect SSD/HDD from Bash Script Is it possible to check if a file path points to a ssd or hdd?
For example a script could do more operations in parallel when running on a SSD while on a HDD it would hurt performance.
diskutil info &quot;$(df /path/to/file | sed -n '2s|^.*% */|/|p')&quot; | awk '/Solid State/ {print $NF}'

Returns Yes if solid state, No if not, and Info not available otherwise.


subshell df /file/path | awk 'NR==2{print $NF}'
df /path/to/file prints information on the mount point containing the given file.
sed replaces in the result.
-n disables ‘automatic’ printing, i.e. only print lines that have been specifically told to print.
2 performs the operation on the second line.
s| performs a substitution with the arguments between occurrences of the delimiter given.
^ from the start of the line.
.*% any characters any number of times, up to the last percent sign.
 */ then any number of spaces before the slash.
|/ should be replaced with a slash.
|p and the line should be printed.
This returns something like /Volumes/MyVolumeName.

command diskutil info /Volumes/MyVolumeName | awk '/Solid State/ {print $NF}'
diskutil info provides information about the disk or volume given.
awk filters on the result.
/Solid State/ returns lines containing the string &quot;Solid State&quot;.
{print $NF} prints the last column.



Example: my home directory is on the internal SSD which is solid state, command returns &quot;Yes&quot;.
$ diskutil info &quot;$(df ~ | sed -n '2s|^.*% */|/|p')&quot; | awk '/Solid State/ {print $NF}'
Yes