A helpful beginner’s guide to managing BSD filesystems. The author outlines what filesystems are, the format of /etc/fstab including some of the more commonly-used options, mounting media such as CDs, and using df to monitor partition space.
Managing Filesystems: fstab
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
One thing I think is important is to try and layer in security on the file system level. IE Mount /tmp with noexec, and nosuid…and making sure UMASK permissions are proper. ( I think umask is linux specific…but feel free to correct me ) A secured fstab with quotas goes some way to help secure a system.
in mandrake control center there are a tool for mounting samba on startup… this is a realy cool thing for us that use linux on the desktop. well it makes it easyer to play mp3`s over the network.
Umask is not Linux specific
.
There are 2 different implementations of umask in the *nix universe. If I am not mistaken, when doing a chmod it will look at the umask before actually changing permissions other implementations will chmod without looking at the umask.
Please correct me if I am incorrect. I believe its there as a saftey check under *bsd.
fstab is not Linux specific, all implementation are based on S5R4, atleast the file format.
Hi, can anyone tell me why I am not able to mount NTFS on my red hat linux partitions. It is mounted automatically by Suse but not by redhat when I try to mount it manually!
I should no better than to feed a troll, but with such a easy claim to blowout of the water, why not…
1: SMB support can be compiled into the kernel
2: SMB support can be loaded as a module
3: there is nothing preveint you from mounting it at boot
You need ntfs support in the kernel most likely or need to add an entry to your fstab, google around and the answer will become apparent.
I cannot specifical comment on NTFS for (SUSE) or Linux because i havent not used Linux in sometime. You should have something in the mount man page.
There might be also a seperate tool for NTFS. Do a man search.
man -k ntfs
But here is some other links that you might find appropriate:
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/index.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-ntfs/
You will have to cross reference that man pages for mount, and ntfs and any other utilities that your distro uses. Wish I could be of more help.
thanks a lot! I will try to go through these docs and see if works!
There are so many options you can use in /etc/fstab, but the level of customization varies. For example, in FreeBSD you use tunefs to set most FFS mount options, while you do it in the fstab on NetBSD (i.e. sync/async, soft updates).
Could be more thorough, but better than just the man page.
that becuase the ntfs modulkes are stil experimental you can’t write yet but you can read ntfs go to this site: http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/index.html it’s fool proof i did it back when i was a noob… assuming you’re still using 2.4
I heard that RedHat purposely doesn’t include support for NTFS in its builds. Not sure if that’s correct or not. All other common distros seem to support and mount NTFS filesystems.
hi
I heard that RedHat purposely doesn’t include support for NTFS in its build
—
yes. thats true.ms patent rights dont allow distribution in US
Stop posting about Linux crap on a BSD thread.
cool down. It’s just a talk about a technical part! It’s common between linux and bsd .
The FreeBSD Handbook has a chapter on Unix basics:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/basics.ht…
Among other things it discusses fstab and mounting file systems. This might be of interest also for Linux beginners.
That guide is about managing BSD filesystems. I don’t give a rat’s ass if Linux uses /etc/fstab.. the guide doesn’t mention Linux anywhere. Comprehend?
Hi
Users always will talk about competition.learn to live with it
Jess
Maybe as a Linux user, you’re used to dealing with compromises, but the rest of the world doesn’t care about what the reasons are for your rude behavior.
“I heard that RedHat purposely doesn’t include support for NTFS in its builds. Not sure if that’s correct or not. All other common distros seem to support and mount NTFS filesystems.”
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html#6.2
@ Patent guy? What’s your source? I hear a lot of voices in my head too
Please be aware that the “new” NTFS code is a lot more stable, more functions (no, no full write support, but partly it’s there).
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html#7.1
Full write support is possible with Captive and Windows XP (ntfs.sys), but you need a license for Windows XP then.
Fwiw in a BSD thread: NetBSD and OpenBSD have NTFS (without write) support too. Don’t know aboute FreeBSD.
“That guide is about managing BSD filesystems. I don’t give a rat’s ass if Linux uses /etc/fstab.. the guide doesn’t mention Linux anywhere. Comprehend?”
Managing BSD filesystems???
Last time i checked, OpenBSD 3.4 still used /dev/wd0a (rwd0a) instead of /dev/da0s1a. That makes it FreeBSD specific. Last time i checked, FreeBSD 5.2 still used /dev/ad0s1a. That makes it […] i don’t know, some BSD-version-i-don’t-know specific.
“You will notice that the / partition is just a bit full. The filesystem always reserves 10% or so”
“Or so”. On OpenBSD, it is 5% by default.
So what is really the difference between Linux fstab and FreeBSD fstab? The format is the same (like with any *NIX). The filesystems are different. The devices are different. Both are logical, and obvious. What one needs to learn is how their OS devices are named & handled (Linux, Linux-DevFS NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, WhateverBSD) and which filesystems are used. cd9660 vs iso9660, big deal! ufs instead of ext2fs, very hard to comprehend! That’s worth an article!!!
$ man fstab and $ man mount help i heard. Those manpages make this article pretty much obselete imo, but also make the article rather more general Unixish. It is obviously meant for newbies, so that makes it useful somehow (for understanding general fstab; unfortunately he doesn’t explain Dump or Pass).
A crybaby attitude about this being “BSD specific” is really unnecessary.
Hi
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-January/msg03476.ht…
I don’t see Linux mentioned anywhere in that guide. I see BSD, not Linux. I see a Daemon icon for this OSNews post, not a fat penguin.
I’m just stating the facts.. not being a “crybaby”.
How original.. did you write that one? I’m a moron.. yet people are posting about Linux on a thread clearly stating BSD! Who’s the moron?
“I don’t see Linux mentioned anywhere in that guide. I see BSD, not Linux. I see a Daemon icon for this OSNews post, not a fat penguin.
”
..i’d rather not repeat explaining fstab is rather a general part of Unix/*NIX and that this is relatively not even about “BSD” in general. Please, check a random /etc/fstab on SunOS or IRIX, compare it with a random Linux or BSD one and you know what i mean.
The author clearly wrote it for people migrating from Microsoft Windows. When he compared with Linux (for migrators from Linux, which is also likely), worked it out a bit better (explained dump, pass, filesystem differences, and like i said differences between Linux and the other BSD’s eventually other Unices), and stated which BSD(‘s) he is meaning (obviously not Open) the article is of much more value.
i believe these 2 links will provide the info you need
http://anyweb.kicks-ass.net/linux/tips/tip6.html
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/index.html
hope it helps – raven