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Mount Mount

Mounting allows storage devices like floppy disks, CDs, and partitions to be attached to an existing directory in the file system so their contents can be accessed. This is done using the mount command, specifying the device and mount point. The umount command detaches or unmounts devices. In Mandriva Linux, automount automatically mounts devices listed in /etc/fstab without needing to manually mount and unmount.

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26 views

Mount Mount

Mounting allows storage devices like floppy disks, CDs, and partitions to be attached to an existing directory in the file system so their contents can be accessed. This is done using the mount command, specifying the device and mount point. The umount command detaches or unmounts devices. In Mandriva Linux, automount automatically mounts devices listed in /etc/fstab without needing to manually mount and unmount.

Uploaded by

Charbel Tannous
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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< What is mounting >

As you know, you can store your data in different physical storage devices, like floppies, CD-
ROMs, and hard disk drives. Your hard disk or disks are also very likely split up into different
partitions with different filesystems.

If you're migrating to Linux from Microsoft Windows, you're probably used to accessing all your
filesystems very easily: you just boot up your puter, go to My Computer, and find all your
Windows partitions there immediately. For example, if you have a second hard drive (or a
second Windows partition), it automatically appears as D:\ and you can immediately access it.
The same goes for floppies, CD-ROMs, digital cameras, and other storage devices - you just plug
them in, and you'll be able to immediately access them. However, this isn't the case in Linux.

You're probably a bit confused at first: you put your floppy or CD into the drive and start
wondering why you're not able to access it! This is because your floppies, CDs, hard disk
partitions, and other storage devices must be attached to some existing directory on your system
before they can be accessed. This attaching is called mounting, and the directory where the
device is attached is called a mount point.

After the device is mounted, you can access the files on that device by accessing the directory
where the device is attached. When you're done and want to remove the floppy or CD or other
device, you need to detach, unmount, it before removing it.

< How to mount >


Mounting is done with the mount command.

When mounting, you must tell the mount command what is the device or partition you want to
mount and what is the mount point. The mount point must be a directory that already exists on
your system. For example, to mount your floppy:
$ mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

In this example, /dev/fd0 is your floppy drive, and /mnt/floppy is the mount point. Now when
you access /mnt/floppy, you'll actually access the files on your floppy.

Usually /dev/fd0 is your floppy drive, although some distros are configured so that
/dev/floppy is the same thing as /dev/fd0. Usually your CD-ROM is configured the same
way: /dev/cdrom is your CD-ROM device (or, more specifically, /dev/floppy is a symbolic
link to your actual floppy drive, and /dev/cdrom is a symbolic link to your CD-ROM drive).
< Where to mount >
Although many Linux distros have directories like /mnt/floppy or /floppy created by default
so you can mount your floppies there, you're not forced to use these directories. Using the mount
command, you can mount your devices or partitions into any existing directory you want!

Usually your Linux distro is configured so that one particular directory is the default mount point
for one particular device. In most distros it's /mnt/floppy or /floppy for floppies, and
/mnt/cdrom or /cdrom for CD-ROMs. When this is the case, you don't need to tell mount the
whole device name: just give either the device or mount point and you're ok. For example, if
/mnt/floppy is the default mount point for /dev/fd0 (or whatever your floppy drive is), this
would mount your floppy:
$ mount /mnt/floppy

The default mount points for different devices are configured in a file called /etc/fstab. The
root user can freely edit the mount points configured in that file.

< How to unmount >


Unmounting is done with the umount command. No, I didn't make a typo: the command really is
umount, not unmount.

When unmounting, you'll need to tell umount what mounted device to unmount, either by telling
what's the device or the mount point. For example, if /dev/fd0 is mounted to /mnt/floppy,
you'll unmount it with
$ umount /mnt/floppy
or
$ umount /dev/fd0

It's not wise to remove the floppy from the floppy drive without unmounting it first! In the worst
case the data you were writing to the floppy wasn't written into it yet. With CD-ROMs you can't
do this: the tray won't even open if you haven't unmounted the CD first.

< Mandriva's automount >


In Mandriva Linux you can just stick in your floppy or CD-ROM and immediately access the
files on them, without mounting them first. After you're done, you can just remove them from the
drive without unmounting them first. This can be done because of a tool called automount.
automount automatically mounts all the partitions and devices listed in /etc/fstab, no matter if
the devices are physically there or not. This way you can access devices in Mandriva without
mounting and unmounting them yourself.

The following examples illustrate typical uses of the command mount for attaching the file
directory of a device or partition to the file directory tree of the Linux system.
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
This command will connect the device "/dev/fd0" (usually the floopy drive) to the directory
"/mnt/floppy" so that you can access the files and directories (folders) on the floppy disk in the
floppy drive under the "/mnt/floppy" directory. The directory "/mnt/floppy" is also called the
"mount point", which must already exist when this command is executed.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

This command will connect the device "/dev/cdrom" (usually the CD ROM drive) to the
directory "/mnt/cdrom" so that you can access the files and directories on the CD ROM disk in
the CD ROM drive under the "/mnt/cdrom" directory, which must already exist when this
command is executed.
umount /mnt/floppy
This command unmounts the floppy drive. After this command is executed the files and
directories on the floppy will no longer be accessible from the directory tree of the Linux system.
umount /dev/fd0

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