(libc.info.gz) Mount Information

Info Catalog (libc.info.gz) Filesystem Handling (libc.info.gz) Mount-Unmount-Remount
 
 31.3.1 Mount Information
 ------------------------
 
 For some programs it is desirable and necessary to access information
 about whether a certain filesystem is mounted and, if it is, where, or
 simply to get lists of all the available filesystems.  The GNU C Library
 provides some functions to retrieve this information portably.
 
    Traditionally Unix systems have a file named '/etc/fstab' which
 describes all possibly mounted filesystems.  The 'mount' program uses
 this file to mount at startup time of the system all the necessary
 filesystems.  The information about all the filesystems actually mounted
 is normally kept in a file named either '/var/run/mtab' or '/etc/mtab'.
 Both files share the same syntax and it is crucial that this syntax is
 followed all the time.  Therefore it is best to never directly write the
 files.  The functions described in this section can do this and they
 also provide the functionality to convert the external textual
 representation to the internal representation.
 
    Note that the 'fstab' and 'mtab' files are maintained on a system by
 _convention_.  It is possible for the files not to exist or not to be
 consistent with what is really mounted or available to mount, if the
 system's administration policy allows it.  But programs that mount and
 unmount filesystems typically maintain and use these files as described
 herein.
 
    The filenames given above should never be used directly.  The
 portable way to handle these file is to use the macro '_PATH_FSTAB',
 defined in 'fstab.h', or '_PATH_MNTTAB', defined in 'mntent.h' and
 'paths.h', for 'fstab'; and the macro '_PATH_MOUNTED', also defined in
 'mntent.h' and 'paths.h', for 'mtab'.  There are also two alternate
 macro names 'FSTAB', 'MNTTAB', and 'MOUNTED' defined but these names are
 deprecated and kept only for backward compatibility.  The names
 '_PATH_MNTTAB' and '_PATH_MOUNTED' should always be used.
 

Menu

 
* fstab                       The 'fstab' file
* mtab                        The 'mtab' file
* Other Mount Information     Other (non-libc) sources of mount information
 
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