Master Linux File Mounting: From ISO Images to NFS and AutoFS

Hello everyone! In server usage, mounting is one of the most common operations, so this article introduces Linux file mounting.

Manual Mounting

The basic syntax is: mount [-t vfstype] [-o options] device dir Key options: -t vfstype: specify filesystem type (e.g., iso9660, msdos, vfat, ntfs). -o options: mounting options such as loop, ro, rw, iocharset. device: the device to mount. dir: the mount point.

Mounting an ISO Image

# cp /dev/cdrom /home/xiuxiu/mydisk.iso   # or
# dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/home/xiuxiu/mydisk.iso

Create a mount point and mount the image:

mkdir /mnt/vcdrom

mount -o loop -t iso9660 /home/xiuxiu/mydisk.iso /mnt/vcdrom

Mounting a USB Hard Disk

Identify the device (e.g., /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdc5) and create mount points:

mkdir -p /mnt/usbhd1   # mkdir -p /mnt/usbhd2

mount -t ntfs /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usbhd1   # mount -t vfat /dev/sdc5 /mnt/usbhd2

For Chinese filenames, use the charset option:

mount -t ntfs -o iocharset=cp936 /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usbhd1
mount -t vfat -o iocharset=cp936 /dev/sdc5 /mnt/usbhd2

Mounting a USB Flash Drive

mount -t vfat -o iocharset=cp936 /dev/sdd1 /mnt/usb

Mounting a Windows Share (SMB/CIFS)

Install the Samba package if needed, then create a mount point and mount:

mkdir -p /mnt/samba

mount -t smbfs -o username=administrator,password=pas123 //10.140.133.25/c$ /mnt/samba

Mounting a UNIX NFS Share

Create a mount point and mount the NFS export:

mkdir -p /mnt/nfs

mount -t nfs -o rw 10.140.133.10:/export/home/xiuxiu /mnt/nfs

Supplementary Notes

SMB (also known as CIFS) is a Microsoft protocol for file and printer sharing; Samba provides Unix implementations.

For Solaris NFS server configuration, add a share with share -F nfs -o rw /export/home/xiuxiu and start the service.

For Linux NFS server, edit /etc/exports and start portmap and nfs services.

Mounting Optical Discs

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

umount /mnt/cdrom

Permanent Mounts (fstab)

Add entries to /etc/fstab using device names or UUIDs (obtainable via blkid).

Automatic Mounting with autofs

Install autofs: yum install autofs -y Start and enable the service:

systemctl start autofs.service
systemctl enable autofs.service

Configure rule files (e.g., /etc/auto.misc or custom /etc/auto.nfs) and the master map ( /etc/auto.master) to watch a parent directory and apply the rules.

After editing, restart the service: systemctl restart autofs Example NFS rule:

public -fstype=nfs serverb.lab.example.com:/shares/public

Once configured, accessing the watched directory triggers automatic mounting.

Reminder: Use rm -rf with extreme caution on mounted shares and always unmount when finished to avoid data loss.