Mounting

To gain access to files on a device, you must first tell it where in the directory tree you would like those files to appear (mount point). This process is called mounting a filesystem.

• Devices must be mounted before they can be accessed.
• Devices must be unmounted before they can be "ejected" (you should not eject a mounted floppy).

mount

Mount a filesystem.

umount

Unmount a filesystem.

The system administrator can control which file systems are mounted at boot time, pre-determine the mount points for specific file systems, and allow some file systems to be mounted by normal users. This is configured in /etc/fstab, which includes the following fields:

1. device
2. mount point
3. filesystem type
4. options
   • noauto: not done at boot time
   • ro: read-only device
   • users: any user can mount it