Learning Debian GNU/Linux

Filesystem Administration

When Linux starts, it automatically mounts the file systems specified in the file /etc/fstab. By revising this file, you can customize the operation of your system.

Configuring Local Drives

When you install Linux, the installation program configures the file /etc/fstab to specify what filesystems are to be mounted when the system is started. Here’s a typical /etc/fstab file:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options>         <dump> <pass>
/dev/hda2       /             ext2   defaults          0      1
/dev/hda3       none          swap   sw                0      0
proc            /proc         proc   defaults          0      0

The first three lines, those beginning with a hash mark (#), are comments that are ignored by the system; they merely help human readers identify and understand the file. The next three lines each specify a filesystem to be mounted at system startup. Six columns of information appear:

Filesystem

The device that contains the filesystem.

Mount point

The system directory that will hold the filesystem.

Filesystem type

Specifies the type of the filesystem. Popular types include:

ext2

the standard Linux filesystem

swap

the standard Linux swap filesystem

proc

a special filesystem provided by the kernel, used by system components to obtain system information in a standard way

iso9660

the standard filesystem used on CD-ROM

msdos

the standard MS-DOS filesystem

See the man page for mount for other filesystem types.

Mount options

Specifies the options given when the filesystem is mounted. If multiple options ...