FSTAB Options

[DevynCJohnson]

The filesystem table (/etc/fstab) has a column that contains various parameters that are read by the mounting utility. Many options are applicable to most or all filesystems. Then, there are some filesystem-specific options. Knowing most of these options can be quite beneficial to admins and general users.

General Settings

• async - Asynchronous read and write
• auto - Mount the filesystem on bootup
• defaults - The typical setting for the filesystem being edited
• dev - Recognize special block device files
• exec - Allow executables to be executed
• noauto - Do not mount the filesystem on bootup
• nodev - Do not recognize special block device files
• noexec - Do not permit executables to be executed
• nosuid - Forbid the use of SUID
• ro - Read-only
• rw - Read+Write
• suid - Allow the use of SUID
• sync - Synchronous read and write

Linux-specific General Settings

• atime - Last access time
• ctime - Last status change time
• mtime - Last modified time
• noatime - Do not record last access time
• owner - Allow the specified owner to mount the filesystem (owner=bob)
• relatime - The last access time is updated if it is older than the last modified time
• strictatime - Same as atime

Filesystem Specific

CIFS

• guest - This option indicates that passwords are not required to access the server share
• iocharset - Set the I/O character set (iocharset=utf8)
• password - The password needed to access the share; this is the password of the Windows system
• uid - Declare the owner of the share by UID
• username - The user trying to access the share; this is the username of the Windows system

EXT2

• check - Set the fsck checking level (none, normal, or strict)
• debug - Print debug info
• sb - Declare the location of the superblock by specifying a block (sb=5)

FAT

• check - Check filenames to ensure that the correct naming schemes are used; choices include "r" (relaxed), "n" (normal), and "s" (strict)
• conv - Perform DOS and Unix text-file conversions; choices include "b" (binary), "t" (text), and "a" (auto)

FAT and NTFS

• dmask - Set the user directory creation mode mask
• fmask - Set the user file creation mode mask
• gid - Set the GID to give to files
• uid - Set the UID to give to files
• umask - Set the user file/directory creation mode mask
• windows_names - Only permit characters accepted by Windows to be used in directory and file names

NFS

• addr - Set the IP address

Further Reading

• /etc/fstab Explained - http://www.linux.org/threads/etc-fstab-explained.7214/
• Manual Mounting - http://www.linux.org/threads/manual-mounting.7253/
• Filesystems (Reading Guide) - http://www.linux.org/threads/filesystem-article-index.6028/