LINUX
COMMANDS
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Accessing block devices
In order to access a block device, like a floppy, CD, or
hard drive partition you need to mount it. To mount
something, means to make it part of the Linux filesystem.
This you do by associating a particular device file
(a special file in the /dev directory) with a mount
point (a directory where the contents of the block device
will be located).
/etc/fstab
To set-up mounting you edit the /etc/fstab file.
Each line consists of six space or tab separated columns.
The six columns represent:
device mount_point filesystem_type
mount_options dump check
For example:
/dev/hda1 /mnt/c vfat noauto,user
0 0
Note:
For further details refer to the fstab and mount
man pages.
Device
| Device |
Description |
| hda |
IDE hard drive, master drive on primary controller
(primary master). |
| hdb |
IDE hard drive, slave drive on primary controller
(primary slave). |
| hdc |
IDE hard drive, master drive on secondary controller
(secondary master). |
| hdd |
IDE hard drive, slave drive on secondary controller
(secondary slave). |
| hdxn |
Partition n on IDE hard drive hdx (/dev/hda1,
/dev/hda2, /dev/hda3, etc.). |
| |
|
| sdx |
SCSI drive x (/dev/sda, /dev/sdb,
/dev/sdc, etc.). |
| sdxn |
Partition n on SCSI drive sdx (/dev/sda1,
/dev/sda2, /dev/sda3, etc.). |
| |
|
| /dev/cdrom |
Symbolic link to CD-ROM device. |
| /dev/scdn |
SCSI CD-ROM drive. |
| |
|
| /dev/fdn |
Floppy drive n, with disk type automatically
detected (/dev/fd0, /dev/fd1, etc.).
(See the fd man page for manual floppy specification.) |
Mount point
The directory to mount the disk or partition to. Can be
anything you want, but it's common to create a directory
in the /mnt directory, and mount to that directory.
For example: /mnt/cdrom
Filesystem type
The following are some commonly used filesystem types supported
by Linux:
| Type |
Description |
| auto |
Autodetection of filesystem, for floppy disks. |
| ext2 |
Linux extended filesystem 2. (The current main native
Linux filesystem.) |
| ext3 |
Linux extended filesystem 3. |
| iso9660 |
CD-ROM filesystem. |
| msdos |
MS-DOS filesystem. |
| ntfs |
Windows NT filesystem. |
| vfat |
Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me filesystem. |
Mount options
The following are some common mount options:
| Option |
Description |
| auto |
Automatically mount filesystem at boot-time. |
| noauto |
Don't mount filesystem at boot-time. |
| user |
Allow users to mount filesystem. |
| nouser |
Only root can mount filesystem. |
| ro |
Read only. |
Dump
Used by the dump command for an ext2 filesystem
backup. '0' for no dumping, '1' for dumping.
Unless you plan to use dump to backup ext2 partitions,
use '0'.
Check
The order of filesystem checks at boot time. ('0'
to not check, '1' for check first, '2'
to check later.) Use '1' for the root (/)
partition, '2' for other hard drive partitions,
and '0' for everything else.
mount
With an entry for the block device in the /etc/fstab
file and the mount point (directory) created, to mount the
device, enter:
mount mount_point
umount - unmount
To unmount a device, be out of the mount point directory
and enter:
umount mount_point
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