Description: Candidates should be able to properly configure and navigate the standard Linux filesystem. This objective includes configuring and mounting various filesystem types.
Key Knowledge Areas:
The concept of the fstab configuration
Tools and utilities for handling swap partitions and files
Use of UUIDs for identifying and mounting file systems
Understanding of systemd mount units
Terms and Utilities:
/etc/fstab
/etc/mtab
/proc/mounts
mount and umount
blkid
sync
swapon
swapoff
swap, swapon, swapoff
Previously we said that RAM is like a gateway of a town so that is too busy. Also we introduced some of techniques which is used by linux operating system in order to manage Memory. One of them was swap. Swap is emulated memory in disk. But what are its benefits and how dose it work ? Usually swap is used if computer run out of memory, in this condition two possible solutions are available. First avoiding user from running program or programs which require memory bigger that existing physical memory size and the second, crashing ! Obviously none of these solutions are acceptable. swap let us running programs and allocating them more memory than what we really have, by writing data on the hard disk temporarily. How ever this technique dose not guarantee performance.
swap can be put on a file(swap file) or can be an entire disk partition(swap partition)
swap file
Lets create a file and use it as swap space:
root@server1:~# free -m
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 971 623 67 3 280 159
Swap: 1020 10 1010
root@server1:~# swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda5 partition 1045500 10976 -1
swapon -s command give us a summary of allocated swap spaces.
root@server1:~# touch myswapfile
For being able to use this file as swap space, it should be populated and some meta data should be added, and its better to change the permission so just root has access to it:
root@server1:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=myswapfile bs=1M count=500
500+0 records in
500+0 records out
524288000 bytes (524 MB, 500 MiB) copied, 1.61505 s, 325 MB/s
root@server1:~# mkswap myswapfile
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 500 MiB (524283904 bytes)
no label, UUID=867546e7-febc-44bc-9444-f2b7ef07824a
root@server1:~# ls -l
total 512004
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 524288000 Dec 25 03:02 myswapfile
root@server1:~# chmod 600 myswapfile
and now lets add it to swap space
root@server1:~# swapon myswapfile
and the result:
root@server1:~# swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda5 partition 1045500 26020 -1
/root/myswapfile file 511996 0 -2
root@server1:~# free -m
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 971 621 72 2 277 162
Swap: 1520 25 1495
in opposite to swapon command we can use swapoff to turn off swap on myswapfile.
root@server1:~# swapoff myswapfile
root@server1:~# swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda5 partition 1045500 25844 -1
swap partition
swap partition is usually made automatically during linux installation, but it is possible to manipulate that or add another swap partition as needed.
root@server1:~# swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda5 partition 1045500 45116 -1
root@server1:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb 8:16 0 1G 0 disk
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sda 8:0 0 50G 0 disk
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 1021M 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda1 8:1 0 49G 0 part /
root@server1:~# fdisk /dev/sdb
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.27.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.
Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x1f54816e.
Command (m for help): n
Partition type
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-2097151, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-2097151, default 2097151):
Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 1023 MiB.
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Partition type (type L to list all types): l
0 Empty 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris
1 FAT12 27 Hidden NTFS Win 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
2 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 83 Linux c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
3 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 84 OS/2 hidden or c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
4 FAT16 <32M 40 Venix 80286 85 Linux extended c7 Syrinx
5 Extended 41 PPC PReP Boot 86 NTFS volume set da Non-FS data
6 FAT16 42 SFS 87 NTFS volume set db CP/M / CTOS / .
7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT 4d QNX4.x 88 Linux plaintext de Dell Utility
8 AIX 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 8e Linux LVM df BootIt
9 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 93 Amoeba e1 DOS access
a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 94 Amoeba BBT e3 DOS R/O
b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 9f BSD/OS e4 SpeedStor
c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52 CP/M a0 IBM Thinkpad hi ea Rufus alignment
e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a5 FreeBSD eb BeOS fs
f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54 OnTrackDM6 a6 OpenBSD ee GPT
10 OPUS 55 EZ-Drive a7 NeXTSTEP ef EFI (FAT-12/16/
11 Hidden FAT12 56 Golden Bow a8 Darwin UFS f0 Linux/PA-RISC b
12 Compaq diagnost 5c Priam Edisk a9 NetBSD f1 SpeedStor
14 Hidden FAT16 <3 61 SpeedStor ab Darwin boot f4 SpeedStor
16 Hidden FAT16 63 GNU HURD or Sys af HFS / HFS+ f2 DOS secondary
17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fb VMware VMFS
18 AST SmartSleep 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap fc VMware VMKCORE
1b Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid fd Linux raid auto
1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX bc Acronis FAT32 L fe LANstep
1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix be Solaris boot ff BBT
Partition type (type L to list all types): 82
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux swap / Solaris'.
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
root@server1:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 1 GiB, 1073741824 bytes, 2097152 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1f54816e
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 2097151 2095104 1023M 82 Linux swap / Solaris
And lets add required meta data to desired partion before making swap on that:
root@server1:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb 8:16 0 1G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 0 1023M 0 part
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sda 8:0 0 50G 0 disk
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 1021M 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda1 8:1 0 49G 0 part /
root@server1:~# mkswap /dev/sdb1
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 1023 MiB (1072689152 bytes)
no label, UUID=6a1c543e-3224-4cfb-82ba-d802051c4b76
and every thing is ready to put the swap on our new fresh partition:
root@server1:~# swapon /dev/sdb1
root@server1:~# swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda5 partition 1045500 48440 -1
/dev/sdb1 partition 1047548 0 -2
root@server1:~# free -m
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 971 625 69 4 276 156
Swap: 2043 47 1996
use swapon -p to change the priority of using swap devices :
When we add a new internal hard disk to our computer it is bounded but it is not mounted. To make it usable first we need to make a partition on that, format it with a file system and then mount it, these is current setting of our computer:
root@server2:~# ls /dev | grep sd
sda
sda1
sda2
sda5
root@server2:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sda 8:0 0 50G 0 disk
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 1021M 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda1 8:1 0 49G 0 part /
as an example lets add a new 10GB hard disk :
root@server2:~# ls /dev | grep sd
sda
sda1
sda2
sda5
sdb
root@server2:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb 8:16 0 10G 0 disk
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sda 8:0 0 50G 0 disk
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 1021M 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda1 8:1 0 49G 0 part /
root@server2:~# fdisk /dev/sdb
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.27.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.
Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x21fcd674.
Command (m for help): n
Partition type
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-20971519, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-20971519, default 20971519):
Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 10 GiB.
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
root@server2:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb 8:16 0 10G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 0 10G 0 part
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sda 8:0 0 50G 0 disk
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 1021M 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda1 8:1 0 49G 0 part /
root@server2:~# mkfs.ext
mkfs.ext2 mkfs.ext3 mkfs.ext4 mkfs.ext4dev
root@server2:~# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1
mke2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
Creating filesystem with 2621184 4k blocks and 655360 inodes
Filesystem UUID: a3be5874-890b-46a6-b4e5-a3f88998ad91
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632
Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
Now lets mount /dev/sdb1 on a mount point to use it:
root@server2:~# mkdir /mnt/my10ghdd
root@server2:~# mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/my10ghdd/
root@server2:~# touch /mnt/my10ghdd/{myfile1,myfile2,myfile3}
root@server2:~# ls /mnt/my10ghdd/
lost+found myfile1 myfile2 myfile3
-t means what type of file system is going to be mounted, /dev/sdb1 is mount device and /mnt/my10ghdd is mount point.
mount command switches
Description
mount -V
Output version
mount -v
Verbose mode
mount -h
Prints help message
mount -a
mount all file systems mentioned in /etc/fstab file
mount -n /dev/sda7 /mnt/newpartition
mounting without writing in /etc/mtab file
mount -t <File System Type> /dev/sda7 /mnt/newpartition
indicates the File System ext2, ext3, ext4, iso9660, ntfs, swap, auto
Before exploring mount command options lets talk about sync/async concept:
sync/async
As spped difference between CPU and Hard Disk or other lazy devices, RAM are used. But Still there is a gap and latency between RAM and 3rd storage media. The solutions for omitting this speed gap are caches and buffers. Imagine CPU wants to write some thing on a poor floppy Disk. The data can be first stored in RAM and CPU can invest its valuable time on other things and than Data is writed down on floppy disk from ram.This is what logic accepts and usually happens, which is called "async". In opposite to "async" we have "sync" option which writes down dataat the same time on the floppy, and obviously take more time.
mount command options:
mount option
Description
ro
read-only
rw
read-write
exec/noexec
Permit/Prevent execution of binaries
suid/nosuid
Permit/Block the operation of suid, guid bits
dev/nodev
Interpret/Do not interpret character or block special devices on the file system
sync/async
I/O to the file system is done (a)synchronously
defaults
Use default options: rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async
remount
Attempt to remount an already-mounted file system, usually used to change mount options
/etc/mtab (contraction of mounted file systems table)
mtab is a file which is kept update with the mount subsystem.It lists currently mounted file system, how ever kernel doesn't do any thing with the mtab file. kernel puts its settings in /proc/mounts and /proc/self/mounts.
When we type mount the content of mtab file is shown:
root@server1:~# mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=475204k,nr_inodes=118801,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=99492k,mode=755)
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,release_agent=/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=26,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=14873)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
vmware-vmblock on /run/vmblock-fuse type fuse.vmware-vmblock (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=99492k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
They are the same, as mtab list includes some dynamically mounted system objects it shouldn't be edited by the Administrators.
/etc/fstab (file systems table)
Every thing seems right but our mounted devices are not persistent and wouldn't be accessible after reboot so far.To make a persistent mount we should use fstab. fstab is very similar to mtab but they are not related. fstab is more easier to edit:
root@server1:~# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=142a64e5-96f3-4789-9c91-1dc1570057b7 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=b4801c8b-ca75-4548-8697-182d1b6d895c none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
# for making permanent swap on /dev/sdb1
UUID="b4801c8b-ca75-4548-8697-182d1b6d895c" none swap sw 0 0
Desciption:
Item
Example
Description
<file system>
/dev/floppy0 or UUID
Device/partion that contains file system
<mount point>
/media/floppy
Where do we wana mount device/partition
<type>
ext4
Type of File system
<option>
rw, user, noauto, exec, ...
mount options of accessing device/partition
<dump>
0 or 1
enable/disbale backing up device/pertition
<pass>
0 or 1 or 2
Control the order of fsck check partition/device during boot process
Lets take a look at fstab mount options:
fstab mount options:
Obviously fstab mount options and mount command options are the same but there some options which are meaning full if we are talking about fstab configuration:
mount option
Description
user
Allow an ordinary user to mount the file system. The name of the mounting user is written to mtab so that he can unmount the file system again.This option Implies the options noexec, nosuid, and nodev (unless overridden by subsequent options, as in the option line user,exec,dev,suid)
users
Allow every user to mount and unmount the file system. Implies the options noexec, nosuid, and nodev (unless overridden by subsequent options, as in the option line users,exec,dev,suid).
nouser
Forbin an ordinary user to mount the File System, this is the default
auto
File System can be mounted Automatically after boot . using mount -a option also mount Device/partition if it is not mounted
noauto
The File System will NOT be automatically mounted after reboot, mount -a wouldn't considering this Device/Partition.You must explicitly mount the filesystem.
_netdev
filesystem resides on a device that requires network access (used to prevent the system from attempting to mount these filesystems until the network has been enabled on the system)
blkid
blkid show all information of block devices in our system,
in fstab we can use UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) instead of Device abstract name from /dev/ directory. This way we reduce the mount fails because HAL might change the name as time passes and other Disks are installed.
And Finnally lets go back and make the swap partition permanent by editing fstab file :
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=142a64e5-96f3-4789-9c91-1dc1570057b7 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=b4801c8b-ca75-4548-8697-182d1b6d895c none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
# for making permanent swap on /dev/sdb1
UUID="b4801c8b-ca75-4548-8697-182d1b6d895c" none swap sw 0 0
and another way to see UUID of devices is:
root@server1:/# ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 26 22:17 142a64e5-96f3-4789-9c91-1dc1570057b7 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 26 22:17 6a1c543e-3224-4cfb-82ba-d802051c4b76 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 26 22:17 b4801c8b-ca75-4548-8697-182d1b6d895c -> ../../sda5
