Master Linux File System Mounting: From ISO Images to NFS and Auto‑Mount

Introduction

The mount command attaches a block device, image file, or remote share to a directory in the Linux file system, making the directory a gateway to the underlying resource.

Manual mount syntax

General form:

mount [-t vfstype] [-o options] device mount_point

Common options: -t vfstype – specify the file‑system type (e.g., iso9660, ntfs, vfat, nfs, smbfs). -o options – mount options such as loop, ro, rw, iocharset=cp936 (for Chinese characters). device – block device or image file. mount_point – existing directory that will become the mount point.

Mounting an ISO image

Create an ISO from a CD/DVD:

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

Create an ISO from a directory:

mkisofs -r -J -V mydisk -o /home/user/mydisk.iso /home/user/mydir

Mount the image:

mkdir -p /mnt/vcdrom
mount -o loop -t iso9660 /home/user/mydisk.iso /mnt/vcdrom

Mounting a USB hard drive

Identify partitions (e.g., /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdc5) with fdisk -l or cat /proc/partitions. Then create mount points and mount:

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

If file names appear garbled, specify the character set:

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 SMB/CIFS share

Install the Samba client package if it is not present, then mount the share:

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

Mounting an NFS share

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

NFS server configuration

Solaris

share -F nfs -o rw /export/home/xiuxiu
/etc/init.d/nfs.server start
# Add additional shares as needed
share /export/home/xiuxiu1

Linux (RHEL/RedHat style)

# /etc/exports
/export/home/xiuxiu 10.140.133.25(rw) *(rw) /export/home/xiuxiu1(rw) /export/home/xiuxiu2(rw)
# Start required services
/etc/rc.d/init.d/portmap start   # RHEL default
/etc/rc.d/init.d/nfs start
# Apply changes
exportfs -rv

Mounting a CD‑ROM directly

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom   # access contents
umount /mnt/cdrom           # safely eject

Persistent mounts with /etc/fstab

Obtain the device UUID: blkid Add a line to /etc/fstab using either the device name or the UUID, specifying the desired mount options. Example:

UUID=123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000 /mnt/vcdrom iso9660 loop,ro 0 0

Automatic mounting with autofs

Install and enable the service:

yum install -y autofs
systemctl start autofs.service
systemctl enable autofs.service

Create or edit rule files (e.g., /etc/auto.misc, /etc/auto.nfs) to map subdirectories to remote resources. Example rule for an NFS share:

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

Reference the rule file from /etc/auto.master to watch a parent directory such as /mnt: /mnt /etc/auto.misc Restart the daemon to apply changes:

systemctl restart autofs

Example: auto‑mounting a web directory

Configure a temporary HTTP virtual host (shown as a code snippet) and mount a CD‑ROM to the document root:

<VirtualHost 192.168.220.129:80>
    DocumentRoot /public/test
    ServerName 192.168.220.129
</VirtualHost>

mkdir -p /public/test
echo "this is a test" > /public/test/index.html
systemctl stop firewalld
setenforce 0
systemctl restart httpd
mount /dev/sr0 /public/test   # temporary mount

Safety reminder

When working with mounted network resources, avoid careless use of rm -rf and always unmount the resource after use to prevent accidental data loss.