- How to get the complete and exact list of mounted filesystems in Linux?
- 5 Answers 5
- 4 Commands to List Mounted File Systems in Linux
- 1. View Linux Mounted Filesystem Using /proc Filesystem
- 2. List Linux Mounted Filesystem Using df Command
- 3. Print Linux Mounted Filesystems Using findmnt Command
- 4. Show Mounted Linux Filesystem Using mount Command
- How do I see all mounts in Linux?
- See mount points using findmnt:
- As you can see in the output, there are 4 columns:
- Show mount points using cat:
- See mount points using the mount command:
- Show mount points using df (Disk Free):
- What happens when we mount or unmount a device in Linux?
- Conclusion:
- About the author
- David Adams
- How do I check where devices are mounted?
- 3 Answers 3
How to get the complete and exact list of mounted filesystems in Linux?
I usually use mount to check which filesystems are mounted. I also know there is some connection between mount and /etc/mtab but I’m not sure about the details. After reading How to check if /proc/ is mounted I get more confused. My question is: How to get the most precise list of mounted filesystems? Should I just use mount , or read the contents of /etc/mtab , or contents of /proc/mounts ? What would give the most trustworthy result?
I can’t help linking to What is /etc/mtab in Linux? because it covers non-Linux details that none of the answers here give.
5 Answers 5
The definitive list of mounted filesystems is in /proc/mounts .
If you have any form of containers on your system, /proc/mounts only lists the filesystems that are in your present container. For example, in a chroot, /proc/mounts lists only the filesystems whose mount point is within the chroot. (There are ways to escape the chroot, mind.)
There’s also a list of mounted filesystems in /etc/mtab . This list is maintained by the mount and umount commands. That means that if you don’t use these commands (which is pretty rare), your action (mount or unmount) won’t be recorded. In practice, it’s mostly in a chroot that you’ll find /etc/mtab files that differ wildly from the state of the system. Also, mounts performed in the chroot will be reflected in the chroot’s /etc/mtab but not in the main /etc/mtab . Actions performed while /etc/mtab is on a read-only filesystem are also not recorded there.
The reason why you’d sometimes want to consult /etc/mtab in preference to or in addition to /proc/mounts is that because it has access to the mount command line, it’s sometimes able to present information in a way that’s easier to understand; for example you see mount options as requested (whereas /proc/mounts lists the mount and kernel defaults as well), and bind mounts appear as such in /etc/mtab .
4 Commands to List Mounted File Systems in Linux
The Linux operating system provides multiple filesystems, including ext4, xfs, tmpfs, securityfs, and many more. This guide demonstrates various ways to list all mounted file systems in a Linux system.
1. View Linux Mounted Filesystem Using /proc Filesystem
The /proc/mounts file is a file that displays the status of all filesystems that are currently mounted on the system. The file format closely resembles that of the /etc/fstab file. The file reports the status of mounted filesystems as recorded by the Linux kernel.
Thus, to view all the mounted filesystems, view the /proc/mounts file using the cat command as shown.
2. List Linux Mounted Filesystem Using df Command
The df command is mostly used to check disk space utilization on mounted file systems. It lists, among other statistics, total disk space and available disk space on each mounted filesystem.
When the -a option is included, the df command lists all the mounted filesystems.
3. Print Linux Mounted Filesystems Using findmnt Command
The findmnt command is yet another powerful command that displays all mounted filesystems on your Linux system in a tree-like format.
To print all the mounted filesystems, simply run the command without any arguments.
This prints the output in a tree-like format as shown.
You can pass the -D option which will print the output similar to the df -Th command
Pass the -t option followed by the filesystem type to print specific filesystems. For example, to view all the mounted EXT4 filesystems, run the command:
To view all EXT4 filesystems mounted in the /etc/fstab file, run the command:
4. Show Mounted Linux Filesystem Using mount Command
You can also use the mount command to list all mounted file systems. Without any arguments, it lists all the mounted filesystems.
Summing Up
In this guide, we have explored four ways that you can use to list all mounted file systems in a Linux system. Your views and feedback on this guide are welcome.
How do I see all mounts in Linux?
I was asked how to see all mount points in Linux. Even though I always did it for myself using the mount command, I was surprised when I found there was no more human-friendly way I could explain. Thus I decided to write a tutorial that includes different techniques to achieve it.
While running commands to get mount points information is pretty easy, dealing with the output may not be comfortable for some users. After reading this tutorial, you’ll know how to get different outputs through different available commands: cat, findmnt, mount and df. Yet no format is really human friendly.
See mount points using findmnt:
The command findmnt lists all mount points. To do this the findmnt reads files /etc/fstab, /etc/fstab.d, /etc/mtab or /proc/self/mountinfo.
To run it, simply just the command below.
As you can see in the output, there are 4 columns:
- TARGET: This column shows the mount point.
- SOURCE: In this column, you can see the mounted device.
- FSTYPE: Here is described the file system.
- OPTIONS: This column shows mount point options, such as Read-Only or Writable.
You can get additional information on findmnt at https://linux.die.net/man/8/findmnt.
Show mount points using cat:
The most accurate technique to see mount points in Linux is reading the /proc/mounts file using cat. This is also the less human-friendly way, with the worse visual output.
The advantage of this method is that the kernel directly provides the information to see mount points over more human-friendly ways as alternatives explained in this tutorial
To see all mount points using cat, run the command as shown below.
As you can see, the output isn’t user friendly, but it is considered the most accurate method to check mounted devices in Linux.
See mount points using the mount command:
The mount is probably the most known command explained in this tutorial. Once we needed to run it every time we wanted to mount a device, it wasn’t automatic like today. By running it, you’ll get an output with all mounted filesystems. If followed by the -l flag, it will also show the mount point name; the output is similar to the mount command without flags.
As you can see, in the last two lines, there is a mounted pen drive containing a Kali Linux distribution.
Show mount points using df (Disk Free):
The df (Disk Free) command is also useful to print all mount points. The df command is mainly used to show available and used space on all storage devices.
To get an output with all mount points using df, just run it without additional options, as shown below.
Again you can see in the last line the /dev/sdb1 storage device is mounted.
This output displays 4 columns:
- Filesystem: This column shows the filesystem.
- 1K-Blocks: Here, you can see the size.
- Used: This column shows used space (in 1K blocks).
- Available: Available used space (in 1K blocks).
- Use%: Percentage of used space
- Mounted on: Mount point.
You can get more information on df at Linux Commands for Disk Space.
What happens when we mount or unmount a device in Linux?
When you mount a filesystem, like a cd, or a hard disk or USB stick, you create a mount point within your system. This mount point means virtually storing the cd, hard disk or USB stick’s content within your system. The files are not really stored in your system’s storage, but the system makes them accessible from itself by importing them under its filesystem hierarchy.
When you unmount a device, do exactly the opposite and instruct the system to stop providing mount points for external files.
Today mounting devices isn’t a common task since more user-friendly Linux distributions took over the market. Once, users needed to mount every external device manually, specifying the external device path and filesystem.
Conclusion:
As you can see, seeing all mounts in Linux is pretty easy. Linux offers you a variety of techniques to achieve this task by just running a command. As highlighted in the tutorial, the cat method is the most accurate and less human-friendly.
Other tools like findmnt feature a little improvement in the format, making it more user-friendly. Mounting, unmounting, and checking mount points status is a basic knowledge any Linux user-level must hold. Some Unix-like Linux distributions like Slackware don’t include automount enabled by default.
Thank you for reading this tutorial explaining how to see all mounts in Linux. Keep following Linux Hint for more Linux tips and tutorials.
About the author
David Adams
David Adams is a System Admin and writer that is focused on open source technologies, security software, and computer systems.
How do I check where devices are mounted?
What is the command that lets me see what and where devices are mounted? I’m having trouble changing songs on my old iPod, and I have a feeling it’s because of the mount point.
3 Answers 3
There are at least three programs I know of that list device mount points:
- mount — mount a filesystem (used for general mount info too):
$ mount /dev/sda3 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro) proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) . /dev/mapper/lvmg-homelvm on /home type btrfs (rw,relatime,compress=lzo,space_cache) /dev/sda5 on /home/muru/arch type btrfs (rw,relatime,compress=lzo,space_cache) binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) systemd on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd)
$ df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sda3 30832636 11993480 17249912 42% / none 4 0 4 0% /sys/fs/cgroup . /dev/sda5 31457280 3948600 25396496 14% /home/bro3886/arch
$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 100M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 58.5G 0 part ├─sda3 8:3 0 30G 0 part / ├─sda4 8:4 0 1K 0 part ├─sda5 8:5 0 30G 0 part ├─sda6 8:6 0 339.2G 0 part │ └─lvmg-homelvm (dm-0) 252:0 0 1.2T 0 lvm └─sda7 8:7 0 8G 0 part [SWAP] sdb 8:16 0 931.5G 0 disk └─sdb1 8:17 0 931.5G 0 part └─lvmg-homelvm (dm-0) 252:0 0 1.2T 0 lvm
Of these three, mount lists all the mountpoints, AFAICT. The others have their weaknesses.
- findmnt suggested by @webwurst is now my favourite tool for the job. It’s a Swiss Army knife when it comes to output control (newer versions can output in JSON too):
$ findmnt / TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS / /dev/sda1 ext4 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered $ findmnt / -no source /dev/sda1 $ findmnt / --json < "filesystems": [ ] > $ findmnt / --df SOURCE FSTYPE SIZE USED AVAIL USE% TARGET /dev/sda1 ext4 40.2G 25.8G 12.5G 64% /