mount
The mount command serves to attach the filesystem found on some device (like a hard drive partition, USB stick, or CD-ROM) to the big file tree. Conversely, umount detaches it.
Note: Mounting a filesystem usually requires root or sudo privileges.
Basic Syntax
mount [OPTIONS] [-o OPTIONS] DEVICE DIRECTORY
- DEVICE: The block device (e.g.,
/dev/sdb1) or the UUID. - DIRECTORY: The "mount point", an existing directory where the files will appear (e.g.,
/mnt/usb).
Common Flags/Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-t TYPE | The filesystem type (ext4, xfs, vfat, ntfs). Usually auto-detected. |
-o OPTIONS | Comma-separated mount options (e.g., ro for read-only, rw for read-write). |
-a, --all | Mount all filesystems mentioned in /etc/fstab (except those marked noauto). |
Real-world Examples
1. View currently mounted filesystems
Running mount without arguments lists everything that is currently mounted.
mount
(Tip: Pipe this to grep if you are looking for something specific, e.g., mount | grep ext4).
2. Mount a USB drive or partition
Suppose you plug in a new drive, use lsblk to find it's /dev/sdb1, and want to access it.
# 1. Create a mount point (an empty folder)
sudo mkdir /mnt/mydrive
# 2. Mount the partition to that folder
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/mydrive
3. Mount a filesystem read-only
If you want to ensure no data is accidentally altered on a drive (useful for forensics or backups):
sudo mount -o ro /dev/sdb1 /mnt/mydrive
4. Mount an ISO file
You can mount an ISO image file as if it were a physical CD-ROM using the loop option.
sudo mkdir /mnt/iso
sudo mount -o loop ubuntu-22.04.iso /mnt/iso
5. Remount an existing filesystem
If you need to change mount options on the fly (e.g., change from read-only to read-write) without unmounting it:
sudo mount -o remount,rw /