The File System Table: etcfstab

The File System Table: /etc/fstab

The file system table lists every configured file system on your computer's hard drives, where that file system is mounted, and any special options used to mount that drive. Each separate file system appears on a separate line in /etc/fstab, as shown in the following example:

 /dev/wd0a / ffs rw 1 1 /dev/wd0g /home ffs rw,nodev,nosuid 1 2 /dev/wd0d /tmp ffs rw,nodev,nosuid 1 2 /dev/wd0f /usr ffs rw,nodev 1 2 /dev/wd0e /var ffs rw,nodev,nosuid 1 2 

The first field in this listing gives the device node for the partition, as discussed under "Device Nodes."

The second field lists the mount point, the directory where this file system is found. Swap space, when it's listed, has a mount point of "none." (Swap space is not necessarily listed here.)

Next is the file system type. The standard OpenBSD partition uses type "ffs," the UNIX Fast File System. Other options include, but are not limited to, "msdos" (FAT partitions), "mfs" (Memory File System), and "cd9660" (CD-ROM).

The fourth field shows the mount options used on this file system. We'll discuss mount options in detail later in this chapter.

The fifth field tells the dump(8) program if it should back up this file system. If this field equals 0, dump will not back up the system. Otherwise, the number given is the minimum dump level needed to back up the system.

The last field, the pass number, tells fsck(8) when it should check the system during the boot process. The file systems with a 1-pass number are checked first, file systems with a 2-pass number are checked second, and so forth. If you set this to zero, fsck(8) will assume that the file system does not need to be checked.