A small Linux utility to make it easy to configure a mechanical harddisk to enter standby mode (where the platters stop spinning) after a certain period of inactivity.
The implementation is based on the hdparm(8) program to control the disks.
A systemd service unit can be used to ensure that the configuration is always applied consistently when the computer boots as well as waking up from a low-power state.
The script hdstandby applies a timeout value to a disk:
hdstandby <disk> <timeout>
The parameters are:
disk: The name of a disk (see below) to apply the timeout to.timeout: A timeout value like the one given tohdparm -S.
The script checks that a rotational disk is specified, but other than that there's no error checking. Even though this permits setting a timeout on types of block devices that are not plain harddisks (e.g., MD arrays), doing so is not supported, and the effects of it are undefined.
To configure a permanent standby timeout (10 minutes by default) for a disk
(e.g., /dev/sda), run:
systemctl enable --now hd-standby@sda
Repeat this for every disk in your system you want to apply a standby timeout to.
You can use names found in the following directories to specify a disk name:
/dev//dev/disk/by-id//dev/disk/by-path/
For example, if the name /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:04.0 refers to a
harddisk on your system, you can enable the standby timer for it with
systemctl enable --now hd-standby@pci-0000:00:04.0