lfs-book/chapter08/fstab.xml

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<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
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<sect1 id="ch-bootable-fstab">
  <?dbhtml filename="fstab.html"?>

  <title>Creating the /etc/fstab File</title>

  <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-fstab">
    <primary sortas="e-/etc/fstab">/etc/fstab</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <para>The <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file is used by some programs to
  determine where file systems are to be mounted by default, in which order, and
  which must be checked (for integrity errors) prior to mounting. Create a new
  file systems table like this:</para>

<screen><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/fstab &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal># Begin /etc/fstab

# file system  mount-point  type   options         dump  fsck
#                                                        order

/dev/<replaceable>[xxx]</replaceable>     /            <replaceable>[fff]</replaceable>  defaults        1     1
/dev/<replaceable>[yyy]</replaceable>     swap         swap   pri=1           0     0
proc           /proc        proc   defaults        0     0
sysfs          /sys         sysfs  defaults        0     0
devpts         /dev/pts     devpts gid=4,mode=620  0     0
shm            /dev/shm     tmpfs  defaults        0     0
# End /etc/fstab</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>

  <para>Replace <replaceable>[xxx]</replaceable>,
  <replaceable>[yyy]</replaceable>, and <replaceable>[fff]</replaceable>
  with the values appropriate for the system, for example, <filename
  class="partition">hda2</filename>, <filename
  class="partition">hda5</filename>, and <systemitem
  class="filesystem">ext2</systemitem>. For details on the six
  fields in this file, see <command>man 5 fstab</command>.</para>

  <para>The <filename class="directory">/dev/shm</filename> mount point
  for <systemitem class="filesystem">tmpfs</systemitem> is included to
  allow enabling POSIX-shared memory. The kernel must have the required
  support built into it for this to work (more about this is in the next
  section). Please note that very little software currently uses
  POSIX-shared memory.  Therefore, consider the <filename
  class="directory">/dev/shm</filename> mount point optional. For more
  information, see
  <filename>Documentation/filesystems/tmpfs.txt</filename> in the kernel
  source tree.</para>

  <para>There are other lines which may be added to the
  <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file. One example is a line for USB
  devices:</para>

<screen>usbfs        /proc/bus/usb usbfs   devgid=14,devmode=0660 0 0 </screen>

  <para>This option will only work if <quote>Support for Host-side USB</quote>
  and <quote>USB device filesystem</quote> are configured in the kernel. If
  <quote>Support for Host-side USB</quote> is compiled as a module, then
  <filename>usbcore</filename> must be listed in
  <filename>/etc/sysconfig/modules</filename>.</para>

</sect1>