2.2. Mounting a File System
To attach a certain file system, use the
mount command in the following form:
mount [option…] device directory
When the
mount command is run, it reads the content of the /etc/fstab configuration file to see if the given file system is listed. This file contains a list of device names and the directory in which the selected file systems should be mounted, as well as the file system type and mount options. Because of this, when you are mounting a file system that is specified in this file, you can use one of the following variants of the command:
mount[option…] directorymount[option…] device
Note that unless you are logged in as
root, you must have permissions to mount the file system (see Section 2.2.2, “Specifying the Mount Options”).
2.2.1. Specifying the File System Type
In most cases,
mount detects the file system automatically. However, there are certain file systems, such as NFS (Network File System) or CIFS (Common Internet File System), that are not recognized, and need to be specified manually. To specify the file system type, use the mount command in the following form:
mount-ttype device directory
Table 2.1, “Common File System Types” provides a list of common file system types that can be used with the
mount command. For a complete list of all available file system types, consult the relevant manual page as referred to in Section 2.4.1, “Installed Documentation”.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
ext2 | The ext2 file system. |
ext3 | The ext3 file system. |
ext4 | The ext4 file system. |
iso9660 | The ISO 9660 file system. It is commonly used by optical media, typically CDs. |
jfs | The JFS file system created by IBM. |
nfs | The NFS file system. It is commonly used to access files over the network. |
nfs4 | The NFSv4 file system. It is commonly used to access files over the network. |
ntfs | The NTFS file system. It is commonly used on machines that are running the Windows operating system. |
udf | The UDF file system. It is commonly used by optical media, typically DVDs. |
vfat | The FAT file system. It is commonly used on machines that are running the Windows operating system, and on certain digital media such as USB flash drives or floppy disks. |
See Example 2.2, “Mounting a USB Flash Drive” for an example usage.
Example 2.2. Mounting a USB Flash Drive
Older USB flash drives often use the FAT file system. Assuming that such drive uses the
/dev/sdc1 device and that the /media/flashdisk/ directory exists, you can mount it to this directory by typing the following at a shell prompt as root:
~]# mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /media/flashdisk