[SOLVED] fstab entry for NFS mount of directory with a space

bkorb · 05-18-2010, 01:10 PM

Hi, I'm trying to figure out if there is any valid syntax I can
use to NFS mount a directory that has a Windows spacy name in it.
I could write a script that does it, but it would be a lot more
convenient if there were fstab syntax I could use. I've tried
these:

"nas:/DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT" /nas/DOCUMENT-MANAGEMENT nfs ro 0 0
nas:/DOCUMENT\ MANAGEMENT /nas/DOCUMENT-MANAGEMENT nfs ro 0 0
nas:/DOCUMENT%20MANAGEMENT /nas/DOCUMENT-MANAGEMENT nfs ro 0 0

I'm afraid the answer is going to be, "I'm sorry, but you cannot
get there from here." I am just hoping not.

AlucardZero · 05-18-2010, 01:49 PM

nas:"/DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT"
would be my guess, though I don't have an easy way to test it

bkorb · 05-18-2010, 01:58 PM

Code:

# cp fstab /etc/fstab ; mount /nas/DOCUMENT-MANAGEMENT
[mntent]: line 46 in /etc/fstab is bad
mount: can't find /nas/DOCUMENT-MANAGEMENT in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

Thank you. The problem is that the fstab is parsed with space separated tokens and does not honor quotes. The real question is, "Is there some way to specify a particular character with some escape sequence?" I tried the URL %20 trick, but no luck. \x20 does not work either. I'll try \040 in a couple minutes, but my hopes are not high.

bkorb · 05-18-2010, 02:01 PM

Despite my lack of high hopes, the octal flavor works!!!

Code:

nas:/DOCUMENT\040MANAGEMENT /nas/DOCUMENT-MANAGEMENT nfs ro 0 0

AlucardZero · 05-25-2010, 03:13 PM

By the way, I just found that in the man page for fstab:

Code:

 The  second field, (fs_file), describes the mount point for the filesystem.  For swap par‐
       titions, this field should be specified as ‘none’. If the name of the mount point contains
       spaces these can be escaped as ‘\040’.

I assume it applies to the first field as well.

bkorb · 05-26-2010, 10:40 AM

Yep, those observations are correct. But since it wasn't in the first field description and it wasn't in a general description and since I didn't re-read the entire man page looking for it, .... I sent an email to the linux man page project coordinator and he said that man page is not part of it any more. Oh, well. Ya do what you can.....