Linux list all mounts

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 .

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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.

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3 ways to list mount points in Linux

In Linux, there are three ways to list mount points: using the df command, using the mount command, and using the cat /proc/mounts command. In this blog post, we will discuss each of these commands in detail. We will also provide examples of how to use each command. By the end of this blog post, you will be able to list all of the mount points on your Linux system!

what is mount point in Linux

In Linux, a mount point is a directory where a filesystem is mounted. This means that the contents of the filesystem are stored in the mount point directory, and the filesystem can be accessed from there. For example, if you have a filesystem on your hard drive that you want to access from Linux, you would need to mount it on a mount point.

List mount points with df command in Linux

To list the mount points in Linux, we can use df command. This command can be used to display information about mounted filesystems. By default, df command will list all the mount points on your system. You can also specify the mount point of the filesystem that you want to check.

For example, if you wanted to check the amount of free space on the filesystem that is mounted at /, you would use the following command: df /

This command would output the following information:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda 100G 12G 88G 12% /

The df command can be also used to display information about how much disk space is free on a filesystem.

List mount points with mount command in Linux

The mount command is used to list all of the mounted filesystems on a system. To use the mount command, you need to specify the -l option. For example, if you wanted to list all of the mounted filesystems on your system, you would use the following command: mount -l

This command would output the following information:

/dev/sda on / type ext (rw,noatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid)

List mount points with cat /proc/mounts command in Linux

The cat /proc/mounts command is used to list all of the mounted filesystems on a system. To use this command, you do not need to specify any options. For example, if you wanted to list all of the mounted filesystems on your system, you would use the following command: cat /proc/mounts

This command would output the following information:
/dev/sda / ext (rw,noatime)
proc /proc proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs /sys sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

You can combine this command with grep command together to get the info of the specific mount point info.

As you can see, all three of these commands provide different information about mounted filesystems. However, all three commands can be used to list all of the mount points on a Linux system.

Example:To list all the mount points on your system, you would use any of the following commands: df /, mount -l, or cat /proc/mounts.

By the end of this blog post, you will be able to list all of the mount points on your Linux system! Try using one of the commands discussed in this post today and see what mount points are available on your system.

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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.

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