in reply to testing state of cd/dvd

For 2, 3 and 4, with a lot of handwaving, I'd suggest writing some XS code using the ioclts defined in /usr/include/linux/cdrom.h. I've used that with success to replace the braindead autorun program on Fedora Core 4. If I had the code at hand, I would have posted it - /msg me if you are interested.

--shmem 

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom