NAME

mount, umount − mount and dismount file system

SYNOPSIS

mount [ special name [ −r ] ]

umount special

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 argument −r 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 in /etc/mtab.  This table is only a reflection of what the mount and umount commands think is mounted, not what is actually mounted.  If invoked without an argument, mount prints the table. 

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. 

FILES

/etc/mtab mount table

SEE ALSO

mount(2)

BUGS

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

7th Edition  —  2/15/82