[root tip] [How To] Mount partition using fstab

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Make a permanent mountpoint.

The FHS document has a limited scope:

  • Local placement of local files is a local issue, so FHS does not attempt to usurp system administrators.
  • FHS addresses issues where file placements need to be coordinated between multiple parties such as local sites, distributions, applications, documentation, etc.

So for the sake of this article there is no standard as we are talking about Local placement of local files is a local issue and the following is therefore to be seen as a suggestion not a requirement. You are the user/owner of the system and you should choose whatever structure is logical and meaningful to you.

Location considerations

If you are the one and only user of the system - i.e. it is not a shared system - you can create your mount points in your home folder - nothing wrong. But if it is a shared system you should create the mount structure beginning from the root e.g. /data/name-of-mount or for removable devices /media/media-name.

  • The /mnt is a predefined location for temporary mounts - so avoid using it for permanent mounts - it can go oh-so-wrong.
  • Avoid the /run location as /run is a volatile structure created as a tmpfs and will be removed at reboot or shutdown.

The following will use a substitute name for the mount e.g. /home/username or /data so replace $mount with whatever you choose.

Locate the device and partition(s).

$ lsblk
sda      8:0    0 223,6G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part 
├─sda2   8:2    0    60G  0 part 
├─sda3   8:3    0   130G  0 part 
└─sda4   8:4    0  33,1G  0 part [SWAP]
sdb      8:16   0   477G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0 419,1G

Depending on your computers hardware you might get other device names and partition numbers. Modify the following according to your output.

Naming considerations

In fstab any amount of whitespace (tabs or spaces) is the designated field separator. While it is techically possible to use a space it is good practice to avoid it - so to spare yourself of hard to find issues by avoiding the use of space(s) in your mount point(s). Use a lo-dash (_) if you need a separation of words.

The /data folder

To help yourself locating your folders easily you should use a consistent approach across your systems. When you share partitions across users it is preferable to use a location outside the /home structure and thus avoiding permissions issues across users.

The /media folder

Systemd uses a media folder located under /run to mount removable medias on the fly. The root folder /media is a folder commonly used for mounting removable media on a defined structure. Ubuntu and other distros uses this and certain auto-mount utilities utilize the /media folder.

Permissions

If you define the mount outside your home e.g. /data you must also define the access control for the folder. ACL is a topic on its own so to keep it simple just set the permissions so everyone can use it. This is not necessary if you create the mount point inside your home

sudo chmod ugo+rwx $mount

Make a permanent mountpoint.

Create a folder for the purpose (change all references to mydisk as you most likely would want a more descriptive name). If you have several partitions you should name the folders with descriptive names - what ever you feel appropriate :slight_smile: - e.g. the content of the partition

$ mkdir $mount/mydisk

Mount the partition.

Replace the yX with the device and the partition number you found.

$ sudo mount /dev/sdyX $mount/mydisk

Mount partition on boot (not removable media)

To mount it permanently on boot modify your /etc/fstab to include the partition on boot.

$ su -
# echo "UUID=$(lsblk -no UUID /dev/sdyX) $mount/mydisk $(lsblk -no FSTYPE /dev/sdyX) defaults,noatime 0 2" >> /etc/fstab
# mount -a

If your drive has more than one partition repeat above steps as needed adjusting for each partition.

The echo command looks cryptic right?

Let’s split it and do some explaining

$ lsblk -no UUID /dev/sdyX
bogus-id-4e9e-403d-bbd0-72e62301e07c

This outputs the unique identifier of your partition. This is used in fstab to ensure the same partition is always mounted the right places. Now try this

$ echo $(lsblk -no UUID /dev/sdyX)                                         
bogus-id-4e9e-403d-bbd0-72e62301e07c

You see? We got the exact same result but with this approach we include it in a command which writes a lot more info. Note that we can use a similar construction to get the filesystem type for the partition.

$ echo $(lsblk -no FSTYPE /dev/sdyX)
ext4

To write this to a file we use a pipe - an arrow pointing to a file name.

$ echo "UUID=$(lsblk -no UUID /dev/sdyX) $mount/mydisk $(lsblk -no FSTYPE /dev/sdyX) defaults,noatime 0 2" > test.txt

To avoid deleting the contents of a file we append to it with double arrow

$ echo "UUID=$(lsblk -no UUID /dev/sdyX) $mount/myhome $(lsblk -no FSTYPE /dev/sdyX) defaults,noatime 0 2" >> test.txt

Have a look at the file

$ cat test.txt
UUID=bogusid1-4e9e-403d-bbd0-72e62301e07c $mount/mydisk ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=bogusid2-314f-40a9-b82f-a8fcfabbccb4 $mount/myhome ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2

Network locations and removable devices

For network locations and removable devices which needs a specific location e.g. a backup device targeted in scripting - read the article on using systemd mount units.

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