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FSTAB(5)		    BSD File Formats Manual		      FSTAB(5)

NAME
     fstab — static information about the file systems

SYNOPSIS
     #include <fstab.h>

DESCRIPTION
     The file fstab contains descriptive information about the various file
     systems.  fstab is only read by programs, and not written; it is the duty
     of the system administrator to properly create and maintain this file.
     Each file system is described on a separate line; fields on each line are
     separated by tabs or spaces.  The order of records in fstab is important
     because fsck(8), mount(8), and umount(8) sequentially iterate through
     fstab doing their thing.

     The first field, (fs_spec), describes the special device or remote file
     system to be mounted.

     The second field, (fs_file), describes the mount point for the file sys‐
     tem.  For swap partitions, this field should be specified as ``none''.

     The third field, (fs_vfstype), describes the type of the file system.
     The system can support various file system types.	Only the root, /usr,
     and /tmp file systems need be statically compiled into the kernel; every‐
     thing else will be automatically loaded at mount time.  (Exception: the
     FFS cannot currently be demand-loaded.)  Some people still prefer to
     statically compile other file systems as well.

     The fourth field, (fs_mntops), describes the mount options associated
     with the file system.  It is formatted as a comma separated list of
     options.  It contains at least the type of mount (see fs_type below) plus
     any additional options appropriate to the file system type.  See the
     options flag (-o) in the mount(8) page and the file system specific page,
     such as mount_nfs(8), for additional options that may be specified.  All
     options that can be given to the file system specific mount commands can
     be used in fstab as well.	They just need to be formatted a bit differ‐
     ently.  The arguments of the -o option can be used without the preceding
     -o flag.  Other options need both the file system specific flag and its
     argument, separated by an equal sign.  For example, mounting an
     msdosfs(5) filesystem, the options

	   -o sync -o noatime -m 644 -M 755 -u foo -g bar

     should be written as

	   sync,noatime,-m=644,-M=755,-u=foo,-g=bar

     in the option field of fstab.

     If the options ``userquota'' and/or ``groupquota'' are specified, the
     file system is automatically processed by the quotacheck(8) command, and
     user and/or group disk quotas are enabled with quotaon(8).	 By default,
     file system quotas are maintained in files named quota.user and
     quota.group which are located at the root of the associated file system.
     These defaults may be overridden by putting an equal sign and an alterna‐
     tive absolute pathname following the quota option.	 Thus, if the user
     quota file for /tmp is stored in /var/quotas/tmp.user, this location can
     be specified as:

	   userquota=/var/quotas/tmp.user

     If the option ``noauto'' is specified, the file system will not be auto‐
     matically mounted at system startup.  Note that, for network file systems
     of third party types (i.e., types supported by additional software not
     included in the base system) to be automatically mounted at system
     startup, the extra_netfs_types rc.conf(5) variable must be used to extend
     the rc(8) startup script's list of network file system types.

     The type of the mount is extracted from the fs_mntops field and stored
     separately in the fs_type field (it is not deleted from the fs_mntops
     field).  If fs_type is ``rw'' or ``ro'' then the file system whose name
     is given in the fs_file field is normally mounted read-write or read-only
     on the specified special file.  If fs_type is ``sw'' then the special
     file is made available as a piece of swap space by the swapon(8) command
     at the end of the system reboot procedure.	 The fields other than fs_spec
     and fs_type are unused.  If fs_type is specified as ``xx'' the entry is
     ignored.  This is useful to show disk partitions which are currently
     unused.

     The fifth field, (fs_freq), is used for these file systems by the dump(8)
     command to determine which file systems need to be dumped.	 If the fifth
     field is not present, a value of zero is returned and dump will assume
     that the file system does not need to be dumped.  If the fifth field is
     greater than 0, then it specifies the number of days between dumps for
     this file system.

     The sixth field, (fs_passno), is used by the fsck(8) and quotacheck(8)
     programs to determine the order in which file system and quota checks are
     done at reboot time.  The fs_passno field can be any value between 0 and
     ‘INT_MAX-1’.

     The root file system should be specified with a fs_passno of 1, and other
     file systems should have a fs_passno of 2 or greater.  A file system with
     a fs_passno value of 1 is always checked sequentially and be completed
     before another file system is processed, and it will be processed before
     all file systems with a larger fs_passno.

     For any given value of fs_passno, file systems within a drive will be
     checked sequentially, but file systems on different drives will be
     checked at the same time to utilize parallelism available in the hard‐
     ware.  Once all file system checks are complete for the current
     fs_passno, the same process will start over for the next fs_passno.

     If the sixth field is not present or is zero, a value of zero is returned
     and fsck(8) and quotacheck(8) will assume that the file system does not
     need to be checked.

     The fs_passno field can be used to implement finer control when the sys‐
     tem utilities may determine that the file system resides on a different
     physical device, when it actually does not, as with a ccd(4) device.  All
     file systems with a lower fs_passno value will be completed before start‐
     ing on file systems with a higher fs_passno value.	 E.g. all file systems
     with a fs_passno of 2 will be completed before any file systems with a
     fs_passno of 3 or greater are started.  Gaps are allowed between the dif‐
     ferent fs_passno values.  E.g. file systems listed in /etc/fstab may have
     fs_passno values such as 0, 1, 2, 15, 100, 200, 300, and may appear in
     any order within /etc/fstab.

     #define FSTAB_RW	     "rw"    /* read/write device */
     #define FSTAB_RQ	     "rq"    /* read/write with quotas */
     #define FSTAB_RO	     "ro"    /* read-only device */
     #define FSTAB_SW	     "sw"    /* swap device */
     #define FSTAB_XX	     "xx"    /* ignore totally */

     struct fstab {
	     char    *fs_spec;	     /* block special device name */
	     char    *fs_file;	     /* file system path prefix */
	     char    *fs_vfstype;    /* File system type, ufs, nfs */
	     char    *fs_mntops;     /* Mount options ala -o */
	     char    *fs_type;	     /* FSTAB_* from fs_mntops */
	     int     fs_freq;	     /* dump frequency, in days */
	     int     fs_passno;	     /* pass number on parallel fsck */
     };

     The proper way to read records from fstab is to use the routines
     getfsent(3), getfsspec(3), getfstype(3), and getfsfile(3).

FILES
     /etc/fstab	 The file fstab resides in /etc.

SEE ALSO
     getfsent(3), getvfsbyname(3), ccd(4), dump(8), fsck(8), mount(8),
     quotacheck(8), quotaon(8), swapon(8), umount(8)

HISTORY
     The fstab file format appeared in 4.0BSD.

BSD			       November 23, 2008			   BSD
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