Mount¶

The mount command is used to mount a file system to a directory.

What Mount does¶

Without args, mount will dump every file system that's mounted, in the order they were mounted.

mount reads from /etc/mtab when it does this.
- Never edit /etc/mtab in real-time yourself.

Syntax¶

mount -t type /dev/device /dir

This tells the kernel to attach the filesystem found on /dev/device (which is of type type) at the directory /dir.

mount -t xfs: Tells mount that the -type of file system is xfs.

Making a New File System and Mounting It¶

To make a new file system, use the mkfs command.

mkfs.xfs /dev/sda3

This creates a new file system, with the xfs format, on the block device /dev/sda3.

Different filesystem formats

The mkfs utility can specify any filesystem type (e.g., mkfs.ext4, mkfs.ext3, etc.).
Type in mkfs. and press Tab+Tab to trigger completion to see all available filsystem types on your local machine.

This can now be mounted directly to a directory.

sudo mkdir /new_mountpoint       # Make a new directory to mount to.  
mount /dev/sda3 /new_mountpoint  # Mount the file system to the directory.

Everything stored in /new_mountpoint will be stored on the new filesystem.

Weird things about mount¶

mount can be used in a lot of weird, complex ways.

The same filesystem can be mounted more than once.
In some cases (e.g., network filesystems) the same filesystem can be mounted on the same mountpoint multiple times.

mount and fstab¶

By default, mount will use /etc/fstab if either device or directory are omitted.

The /etc/fstab (file system tables) file contains info about the file systems and their mount points.
mount uses this file to determine how to mount certain filesystems automatically, when the user doesn't specify exactly how to mount them.
If you want to override mount options from /etc/fstab, use the -o option:
```
mount /device/or/directory -o options  
```
The mount options from the command line will be appended to the list of options from /etc/fstab.
The mount program does not read the /etc/fstab file if both device and directory are given.

Mounting a File System by Editing `/etc/fstab`¶

You can add an entry to /etc/fstab and then running mount -a to mount a file system.

Open /etc/fstab to edit:
```
vi /etc/fstab
```

Then add:

/dev/mapper/VolGroup-my_lv /space ext4 defaults 0 0

After that, run:
```
mount -a
```
Check if the filesystem was mounted:
```
df -h
```

Bind Mounts¶

A bind mount is when you take an existing directory or file on the Linux filesystem and mount it again somewhere else in the filesystem tree.

Unlike a typical mount (like mountaing a USB stick), bind mounts don't change devices. They just provice a second access point to the same file or directory.

Bind mounts let you reuse existing directories or files in multiple places without duplication.

For example, if you wanted to reuse a directory in a chrooted environment, you could use a bind mount:

mkdir /mnt/real_data
mkdir /var/chroot/mnt_data
mount --bind /mnt/real_data /var/chroot/mnt_data

Now /mnt/real_data and var/chroot/mnt_data point to the same exact data.

Bind Mounting a Single File¶

You can also bind mount a single file if you want.

mkdir /var/chroot/etc
mount --bind /etc/hosts /var/chroot/etc/hosts

Setting Attributes on Bind Mounts¶

You must use --bind before you can set attributes.

You will need to run the mount --bind first before you can set attributes (e.g., ro for readonly), then do a remount step.

For example, mounting /bin into a chroot jail as read-only:

mkdir -p /var/chroot/bin
mount --bind /bin /var/chroot/bin
mount -o remount,bind,ro /bin /var/chroot/bin

You must remount the bind mount as read-only.

Execute Permissions

When you remount with -o ro, that means no writes are allowed through that path. However, the user will still be able to execute these files if the file is executable (x permission bit set).

Readonly bind mounts are great for security, especially in jailed environments where you might want to give the user access to certain files (e.g., /etc/hosts, /bin/bash, /usr/bin/ssh), but not allow them to change those files.

Bind First!

You must do the --bind first, then a second -o remount,bind,ro to make it readonly. Linux doesn't allow --bind and ro together in the same step.

This is really useful for when mounting single files that are not meant to be changed, like /etc/hosts:

mkdir /var/chroot/etc
mount --bind /etc/hosts /var/chroot/etc/hosts
mount -o remount,bind,ro /etc/hosts /var/chroot/etc/hosts

That's how you can bind mount files and directories and give them attributes.

Making Bind Mounts Persistent¶

If you want your bind mount to be persistent, you'll need to give it an entry in /etc/fstab.

In the entry, it must have the bind attribute.

/etc/hosts   /var/chroot/etc/hosts   none   bind,ro   0  0

Remount!

Sometimes ro,bind doesn't take effect on the initial mount.
To be safe, do the mount process as you would on the command line.

/etc/hosts   /var/chroot/etc/hosts   none   bind   0  0
/etc/hosts   /var/chroot/etc/hosts   none   remount,bind,ro   0  0

This will make sure it comes up as read-only after boot.