The 'usb-key-copy-con' application provides a GUI console for bulk copying USB keys (flash drives). Here's an example of the program in operation:
Operation of the program is very simple:
- Insert a 'master' USB key when prompted - the contents of the key will be copied into a temporary directory on the hard drive, after which the key can be removed
- Insert blank keys into all available USB ports - the app will detect when each new key is inserted, start the copy process and alert the user on completion
- Repeat step 2 as required.
The program can write to multiple keys in parallel. It can also use filtering on device parameters to ensure that only devices which match the vendor name and storage capacity specified will be overwritten - other devices will be ignored.
The specifics of reading the master key, preparing a blank key (formatting parameters etc) are implemented in short 'profile' scripts (a reader and a writer). You can supply your own profile scripts if your requirements differ from those provided.
The application was developed to run on Linux and is probably not particularly portable to other platforms. The application will probably run most smoothly in a GNOME desktop.
This program is written in Perl and packaged in standard CPAN distribution format. You can install the program and its dependencies with this command:
perl -MCPAN -e "install('App::USBKeyCopyCon')"
On a Debian/Ubuntu system, a better approach would be to use dh-make-perl to
build a .deb package and install that. First install the dependencies:
sudo apt-get install libmoose-perl libgtk2-perl libnet-dbus-perl dosfstools sox gksu
Then build/install one Perl dependency that's not already packaged in Debian:
sudo apt-get install dh-make-perl libdbus-glib-1-dev
dh-make-perl --install --cpan Net::DBus::GLib
Finally, build/install the application itself:
dh-make-perl --install --cpan App::USBKeyCopyCon
The documentation is included in the source modules and script. You can read it online at: http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-USBKeyCopyCon/.
The 'usb-key-copy-con' command also supports a --help option.
Copyright (C) 2009 Grant McLean
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.