NAME

mount, umount − mount and dismount file system

SYNOPSIS

/etc/mount [ special name [ −r ] ]

/etc/umount special

/etc/mount -a

/etc/umount -a

DESCRIPTION

Mount announces to the system that a removable file system is present on the device special.  The file name must exist already; it must be a directory (unless the root of the mounted file system is not a directory).  It becomes the name of the newly mounted root.  The optional last argument indicates that the file system is to be mounted read-only. 

Umount announces to the system that the removable file system previously mounted on device special is to be removed. 

These commands maintain a table of mounted devices.  If invoked without an argument, mount prints the table.  Only the superuser may mount and dismount file systems, any user may list the mount table. 

The ’-r’ option declares that the file system is to be mounted read only.  Physically write-protected and magnetic tape file systems must be mounted read-only or errors will occur when access times are updated, whether or not any explicit write is attempted. 

The ’-a’ option causes all file systems listed in the file system table (/etc/fstab) to be mounted or dismounted.  To allow for nested file systems mounts, dismounts are done in reverse order, i.e., the last entry in the fstab is dismounted first. 

FILES

/etc/fstab - file system information table
/etc/mtab  - mount table

SEE ALSO

mount(2), fstab(5), mtab(5)
ULTRIX-11 System Management Guide, Sections 4.5.6 and 4.5.7

RESTRICTIONS

Mounting file systems full of garbage will crash the system. 
Mounting a root directory on a non-directory makes some apparently good pathnames invalid.