Java - how to detect smartcard hotplug

Question

I load dynamically pkcs11 security Provider in java and it works as long as the smart card reader is inserted before running the application. Could anyone please tell me how to detect a smartcard hotplug when the application is running? Actually I need something like pcsc_scan in java. The environment is Ubuntu 9.10 with java 1.6.0_20. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Can you use the javax.smartcardio.* API in conjunction with PKCS #11?

The CardTerminal class has isCardPresent(), waitForCardPresent(timeout), and waitForCardAbsent(timeout) methods which can be used in a seperate thread to poll for card insertion events.

Answer 2

PKCS#11 doesn't define a standard way to actively notify the application about device insertion/removal. The best you can do is to run a thread which will check the number of slots and their state once a second or so.