hey

please give me the full definition of mount.what do you mean by mounting a filesystem .why we are using it in linux. i googled but not get an appropriate answer please give it full descriptions and example(if any)

with regards
ajay

Basically to mount a file system means to attach it to the system at a directory location. You can kind of think of it like you would "mount" a horse to ride it... If a file system is unmounted, it is separated from the directory structure. The attachment address is called the "mount point." For instance, a separate user-space/user account partition's mount point would be /home .

You cannot browse an unmounted file system, nor save or modify files on it. However, you cannot format or modify partitions on a mounted file system (normally, anyway). Unmounted file systems are identified by their udev name (i.e.: /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc.).

there is a set of manuals that come with unix type systems
you have the ability to get to a command line
it may be a function called "terminal"
go to the command line
then type man mount
and it will display the manual for the mount command
or
info mount
will give you more detail

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i'm running ubuntu server on one 2TB drive (will add another once i figure out how to move my media from my win7 machine to my new server)
where should mount the HD?
is there a standard that i should stick to?

What do you mean with "where to mount the drive". If the OS is on it it is already mounted.
You can see which partition is mounted at which mountpoint with just launching the mount command without any parameters.

oh, right, i have logical volumes
this is a whole new world
thx!

I like to explain to people that a filesystem is structured like an upside-down tree, with the leaves being all of the files, and the branches like directories (or, probably 'folders' for the Windows oriented). Mounting a new filesystem is then like grafting a branch onto the tree. Not too surprisingly, it is performed using the mount command
It is also somewhat confusing to Windows oriented people that Linux has no concept of 'drives', and uses a single filesystem with a single root. This is distinct from DOS/Windows, where each partition is seen as a distinct drive with it's own root directory. By mounting a partition, it's contents become part of the one and only filesystem on a Linux host, and are therefore addressable within the filesystem.
In general, it is possible to mount a partition at any point in the filesystem (although there are fewer places where it actually makes sense to do so), just as you could generally graft a branch onto a tree wherever you want.
Also confusing is the way the term filesystem is used in multiple but different ways. There is 'the filesystem' as alluded to above. Then, there is the filesystem that constitutes an individual partition, which we build when we 'format' a partition. Then, there is a filesystem type, which we refer to as simply a 'filesystem', such as ext2, ext3, xfs, jffs2, fat, NFS, SMB/CIFS, etc. Usually, it is easy to tell from context which usage is implied, but to the newbie, it can be confusing.
Just to add even more confusion to the uninitiated, Linux likes to treat all devices like files. They even show up in the filesystem under the /dev directory. While they obey most of the semantics of files, they are really just access points to allow software to access physical or logical hardware devices. Same goes for the /proc pseudo filesystem (note the use of a filesystem type, here), which is a convenient entry point into some kernel internals, allowing for standard tools to access those internals. Even though it looks like a filesystem, it occupies no storage on any physical media; it is a virtual filesystem.
Confused enough yet?
--- rod.

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lol thx rod
i've got a lot to learn

That was a very nice explanation Rod,... very newbie friendly ...

By the way, I should point out that in my own post above, it reads as though the file system only shows up under its udev name (like; /dev/sda1) when it is not mounted. That is clearly not the case. Hardware shows up under /dev regardless of whether it has been given a user-friendly mounting point or not. Another area where you'll likely need udev names for things is with cameras, sound output and input, and USB (and other serial ports).

My understanding is that the term "mount" comes from the early days of mainframes when the "drives" were actually honking great tape drives. To place a memory tape on a spindle, the operators had to physically lift the spool of tape up to the drive and "mount" it on the spindle.

This may be simply geek legend, but it makes sense and does explain the term.

Don't know,... sounds reasonable though...

thanks a lot all of you.

I'm pretty sure that is accurate.
--- rod.

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There is a good explination about linux mounting