Mounting file systems, directories, and files

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There are two types of mounts, a remote mount and a local mount. Remote mounts are done on a remote system on which data is transmitted over a telecommunication line. Remote file systems, such as Network File System (NFS), require that the files be exported before they can be mounted. Local mounts are mounts done on your local system.

Each file system is associated with a different device (logical volume). Before you can use a file system, it must be connected to the existing directory structure (either the root file system or to another file system that is already connected). The mount command makes this connection.

The same file system, directory, or file can be accessed by multiple paths. For example, if you have one database and several users using this database, it can be useful to have several mounts of the same database. Each mount should have its own name and password for tracking and job-separating purposes. This is accomplished by mounting the same file system on different mount points. For example, you can mount from /home/server/database to the mount point specified as /home/user1, /home/user2, and /home/user3:

/home/server/database        /home/user1
/home/server/database        /home/user2
/home/server/database        /home/user3

A file system, directory, or file can be made available to various users through the use of symbolic links. Symbolic links are created with the ln -s command. Linking multiple users to a central file ensures that all changes to the file are reflected each time a user accesses the file.