Mount a file system.
All files accessible in a Unix system are arranged in one tree, the file hierarchy, rooted at /. These files can be spread out over several devices.
The mount command serves to attach the file system found on some device to the big file tree.
The system maintains a list of currently mounted file systems. If no arguments are given to mount, this list is printed.
Syntax
mount [-adfruvw] [-t ufs | lfs | external_type]
mount [-dfruvw] special | mount_point
mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t lfs | external_type] special mount_point
Options
-a All the filesystems described in getfsent(3) are mounted. Exceptions are those
marked as 'noauto' or are excluded by the -t flag (see below).
Entries that are neither 'ro', 'rw,' or 'rq;' 'nfs' entries that also have 'net' as
an option; and already-mounted 'nfs' entries
-d Cause everything to be done except for the actual system call.
This option is useful in conjunction with the -v flag to determine
what the mount command is trying to do.
-f Force the revocation of write access when trying to downgrade a
filesystem mount status from read-write to read-only.
-o Options may be specified with a -o flag followed by a comma separated
string of options. The following options are available:
async All I/O to the file system should be done asynchronously.
This can be somewhat dangerous with respect to losing data
when faced with system crashes and power outages.
This is also the default.
It can be avoided with the noasync option.
force The same as -f; forces the revocation of write access
when trying to downgrade a filesystem mount status from
read-write to read-only.
noasync
This filesystem should not force all I/O to be written
asynchronously.
noauto This filesystem should be skipped when mount is run with
the -a flag.
nodev Do not interpret character or block special devices on
the file system. This option is useful for a server that
has file systems containing special devices for architectures
other than its own.
noexec Do not allow execution of any binaries on the mounted
file system. This option is useful for a server that has
file systems containing binaries for architectures other
than its own.
noowners
Ignore the ownership field for the entire volume.
This causes all objects to appear as owned by user ID 99 and group ID 99.
User ID 99 is interpreted as the current effective user ID,
while group ID 99 is used directly and translates to 'unknown'.
nosuid Do not allow set-user-identifier or set-group-identifier
bits to take effect.
rdonly The same as -r; mount the file system read-only (even the
super-user can not write it).
sync All I/O to the file system should be done synchronously.
update The same as -u; indicate that the status of an already
mounted file system should be changed.
union Causes the namespace at the mount point to appear as the union of
the mounted filesystem root and the existing directory.
Lookups will be done in the mounted filesystem first.
If those operations fail due to a non-existent file the
underlying directory is then accessed.
All creates are done in the mounted filesystem.
noatime
Do not update the file access time when reading from a file.
This option is useful on file systems where there are large numbers
of files and performance is more critical than updating the
file access time (which is rarely ever important).
strictatime
Always update the file access time when reading from a file.
Without this option the filesystem may default to a less strict update
mode, where some access time updates are skipped for performance
reasons. This option could be ignored if it is not supported by the filesystem.
nobrowse
This option indicates that the mount point should not be visible via the GUI
(i.e., appear on the Desktop as a separate volume).
nofollow
This option indicates that in the course of the mount system call, the
kernel should not follow any symlinks that may be present in the provided
mount-on directory. This is the same as the -k option.
Any additional options specific to a filesystem type that is not one of the
internally known types (see the -t option) can be passed as a comma separated
list; these options are distinguished by a leading '-' (dash).
Options that take a value are specified using the syntax -option=value.
For example, the mount command:
mount -t hfs -o nosuid,-w,-m=755 /dev/disk2s9 /tmp
causes mount to execute the equivalent of:
/sbin/mount_hfs -o nosuid -w -m 755 /dev/disk2s9 /tmp
-r The file system is to be mounted read-only. Mount the file system read-only
(even the super-user can not write it).
The same as the 'rdonly' argument to the -o option.
-t lfs | external type
The argument following the -t is used to indicate the file system type.
There is no default local file system for use with mount.
A type must be specified in order to mount a non-NFS filesystem.
The -t option can be used to indicate that the actions should only be taken
on filesystems of the specified type. More than one type may be specified in
a comma separated list. The list of filesystem types can be prefixed with “no” to
specify the filesystem types for which action should not be taken.
For example, the mount command:
mount -a -t nonfs,hfs
mounts all filesystems except those of type NFS and HFS.
If the type is not one of the internally known types, mount will attempt to
execute a program in /sbin/mount_XXX where XXX is replaced by the type name.
For example, nfs filesystems are mounted by the program /sbin/mount_nfs.
-u The -u flag indicates that the status of an already mounted file system
should be changed. Any of the options discussed above (the -o option)
can be changed; also a file system can be changed from read-only to
read-write or vice versa. An attempt to change from read-write to
read-only will fail if any files on the filesystem are currently open for
writing unless the -f flag is also specified.
The set of options is determined by first extracting the options
for the file system from the fstab table, then applying any options specified
by the -o argument, and finally applying the -r or -w option.
-v Verbose mode.
-w The file system object is to be read and write.
The options specific to NFS filesystems are described in the
mount_nfs(8) manual page.
The mount command calls the mount(2) system call to prepare and graft a special device or the remote node (rhost:path) on to the file system tree at the point node. If either special or node are not provided, the appropriate information is taken from the fstab(5) file.
“The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion” ~ John Adams
Local man page: mount - Command line help page on your local machine.
bless - Set volume bootability and startup disk options.
diskutil - Disk utilities - Format, Verify, Repair.
df - Display free disk space.
hdiutil - manipulate disk images.
sharing - Create share points for afp, ftp and smb services.
umount - detach/unmount a device.
vifs - edit fstab.