The mtab (contraction of '' mounted

file system In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one lar ...

s table'') file is a system information file, commonly found on

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

systems.

Overview

This file lists all currently mounted filesystems along with their initialization options. mtab has a lot in common with

fstab 

fstab (after ''file systems table'') is a  system file commonly found in the directory  /etc on Unix and Unix-like computer systems. In Linux, it is part of the util-linux package. The fstab file typically lists all available disk  partitions and  ...

, the distinction being that the latter is a configuration file listing which available filesystems should be mounted on which mount points at boot time, whereas the former lists currently mounted ones, which can include manually mounted ones not listed in fstab. Therefore, mtab is usually in a format similar to that of

fstab fstab (after ''file systems table'') is a system file commonly found in the directory /etc on Unix and Unix-like computer systems. In Linux, it is part of the util-linux package. The fstab file typically lists all available disk partitions and ...

. Most of the time it is possible to directly use lines from mtab in fstab.mtab manual page
/ref> The file commonly resides in /etc/mtab. In some systems it is a symlink to /proc/mounts.

Example

Sample mtab contents:

 /dev/sdb1 / ext3 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 0
 proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
 /sys /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
 varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755 0 0
 varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
 udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
 devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
 devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
 lrm /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile tmpfs rw 0 0
 securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
 gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/alice/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=alice 0 0

References

{{Unix commands Unix file system technology

Overview

Example

See also

References