Chapter 18. Persistently mounting file systems
As a system administrator, you can persistently mount file systems to configure non-removable storage.
18.1. The /etc/fstab file
Use the /etc/fstab
configuration file to control persistent mount points of file systems. Each line in the /etc/fstab
file defines a mount point of a file system.
It includes six fields separated by white space:
-
The block device identified by a persistent attribute or a path in the
/dev
directory. - The directory where the device will be mounted.
- The file system on the device.
-
Mount options for the file system, which includes the
defaults
option to mount the partition at boot time with default options. The mount option field also recognizes thesystemd
mount unit options in thex-systemd.option
format. -
Backup option for the
dump
utility. -
Check order for the
fsck
utility.
The systemd-fstab-generator
dynamically converts the entries from the /etc/fstab
file to the systemd-mount
units. The systemd
auto mounts LVM volumes from /etc/fstab
during manual activation unless the systemd-mount
unit is masked.
Example 18.1. The /boot
file system in /etc/fstab
Block device | Mount point | File system | Options | Backup | Check |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The systemd
service automatically generates mount units from entries in /etc/fstab
.
Additional resources
-
fstab(5)
andsystemd.mount(5)
man pages on your system
18.2. Adding a file system to /etc/fstab
Configure persistent mount point for a file system in the /etc/fstab
configuration file.
Procedure
Find out the UUID attribute of the file system:
$ lsblk --fs storage-device
For example:
Example 18.2. Viewing the UUID of a partition
$ lsblk --fs /dev/sda1 NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT sda1 xfs Boot ea74bbec-536d-490c-b8d9-5b40bbd7545b /boot
If the mount point directory does not exist, create it:
# mkdir --parents mount-point
As root, edit the
/etc/fstab
file and add a line for the file system, identified by the UUID.For example:
Example 18.3. The /boot mount point in /etc/fstab
UUID=ea74bbec-536d-490c-b8d9-5b40bbd7545b /boot xfs defaults 0 0
Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration:
# systemctl daemon-reload
Try mounting the file system to verify that the configuration works:
# mount mount-point
Additional resources