How to Mount and Unmount Linux File System

by ITSmarttricks Team · September 24, 2019

In this article we are going to learn How to mount and unmount Linux file system. In Linux operating system after create a fresh partition we have to format that partition with some file system eg: ext2, ext3, ext4 and so on and then Mount that file system (Partition) on a directory to use that partition and to store data on that partition.

How to mount and unmount Linux file system

There are two types of file system mounting we have in Linux. one is Temporary mounting & other one is Permanent mounting. Here I am going to explain both type of mounting in this article. So let’s get started.

Here I have a partition i.e /dev/sdb1 which I am going to mount on a directory.

[email protected]:~$ sudo fdisk -l | grep /dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb1        2048 8390655 8388608   4G 83 Linux

Mount a File System (Partition) [Temporary Mounting]

What is Temporary Mounting of File System ?

Ans : Temporary mounting of file system is something that will unmount automatically after reboot the system.

So to mount a file system (Partition) we need a directory. So first create a directory using below command. Here I am going to create a directory named mydata.

[email protected]:~$ mkdir mydata   # Create a Directory

My partition is formatted with ext3 file system and ready for mounting. So let’s mount the file system using mount command. Refer the below command.

[email protected]:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 mydata/   # Mount a File System

We have successfully mounted the file system using mount command. To confirm the same you can use the df -h command. Refer the command below.

[email protected]:~$ df -h | grep mydata   # Confirm the mounted file system
/dev/sdb1       3.9G  8.2M  3.7G   1% /home/itsmarttricks/mydata

OR you can also use mount command to check mounted file system. Refer the command below.

[email protected]:~$ mount | grep /dev/sdb1   # Confirm the mounted file system
/dev/sdb1 on /home/itsmarttricks/mydata type ext3 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)

Unmount Linux File System

To unmount the file system use the below command.

[email protected]:~$ sudo umount mydata/   # Unmount the File System

Permanent Mounting

Above I explained How to do temporary mounting of a file system. Now to mount the file system permanently you have to edit a file called /etc/fstab. So edit the file using below command.

[email protected]:~$ sudo nano /etc/fstab   # Edit the /etc/fstab file

After edit the file add the below line in to that file and save it.

/dev/sdb1    /home/itsmarttricks/mydata   ext3    defaults     0        0

Explanation of above line :

/dev/sdb1 : Partition Name
/home/itsmarttricks/mydata : Mount Directory
ext3 : File System
defaults : Permission
0 : For dump Backup
0 : For FSCK check

To Unmount Permanent File System just edit the /etc/fstab file and remove the line which we added on above step. Then to refresh the file system table run the below command.

[email protected]:~$ mount -a   # Refresh the File System Table

Also Read – Complete Unix Commands And Basic Linux Commands With Examples For Beginners

That’s all, In this article, we have explained How to mount and unmount Linux file system. I hope you enjoy this article. If you like this article, then just share it. If you have any questions about this article, please comment.