# three fstabs?  which is which?



## ksignorini (Aug 10, 2002)

I'm used to editing /etc/fstab from my experience in Linux in order to mount different partitions at different mount points, but when I went into /etc on my Mac I was totally confused...why are there THREE /etc/fstab files?

I found fstab.hd, fstab.rd, and fstab.sd.

Which one controls the mount points?  What do the other two do?

Thanks,
Kent!


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## lethe (Aug 10, 2002)

i believe that those are example fstab files, just for reference.  /etc/fstab is the one you are looking for.  if it is not already there, create one.


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## ksignorini (Aug 10, 2002)

So does OS X use fstab in ADDITION to whatever process it normally uses to determine what drives to mount where?  That is, can I create an fstab with only one entry--for the drive I wish to mount in a spot other than /Volumes--or does it ONLY use fstab if it exists?

Also, I wonder if there is any way to get OS X to unmount drives cleanly (it must just be left out of a shutdown script somewhere, but which one?)

Thanks again,
Kent!


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## ksignorini (Aug 10, 2002)

I guess what I'm getting at is, how viable is this:

http://www.kung-foo.tv/xtips.php#6

Thanks,
Kent!


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## lethe (Aug 10, 2002)

besides fstab, OSX will also probe busses and adds them dynamically.  i believe that the software that controls this is autodiskmount, which unfortunately doesn t seem to have any gonfigurability:  everything goes in /Volumes

the answer to your question is yes, everything will work normally if you have fstab.  it will use what you tell it to in fstab, and then autodiskmount will do everything else normally. autodiskmount will not also mount the volume under /Volumes that you mounted with fstab.


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## lethe (Aug 11, 2002)

its pretty viable, and worth doing.  how many drives does your computer have?

if you only have one internal drive, then there is no chance of the device names changing.  if you have a couple, then fstab might not work out for you.  it doesn t work for me, but i have 3 IDE and 1 SCSI drive.  but its worth a try.  even if it doesn t work for you, there are workarounds.  in fact that link you gave us has a link to a page on xlr8yourmac.com with a description of the fix to this problem.  on that page, one of the darwin developers recommends that no one use fstab under darwin, because of this problem.


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## ksignorini (Aug 12, 2002)

Where on the page I linked for you guys is the link to xlr8yourmac.com's article?  I can't find it.  I would like to read this workaround and the Darwin developer's opinion.

btw:  3 IDE (as soon as I mount the 3rd on in the case).  Currently 2.

Thanks,
Kent!


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## clint (Aug 21, 2002)

I think I read some place that those three fstab files are written at startup by autodiskmount?

I don't know that for a fact- just a vague flash of a memory in my quest to be able to mount a usb mass storage device (my camera)..

Please someone go read my saga in the main most macosx forum about mounting camera as usb mass storage.  I don't know what the /dev/whatgoeshere
etc. to put in the fstab..


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## lethe (Aug 23, 2002)

> _Originally posted by ksignorini _
> *Where on the page I linked for you guys is the link to xlr8yourmac.com's article?  I can't find it.  I would like to read this workaround and the Darwin developer's opinion.
> 
> btw:  3 IDE (as soon as I mount the 3rd on in the case).  Currently 2.
> ...



http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/OS_x_swapfile_notes.html


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## ksignorini (Sep 5, 2002)

> _Originally posted by lethe _
> *besides fstab, OSX will also probe busses and adds them dynamically.  i believe that the software that controls this is autodiskmount, which unfortunately doesn t seem to have any gonfigurability:  everything goes in /Volumes
> 
> the answer to your question is yes, everything will work normally if you have fstab.  it will use what you tell it to in fstab, and then autodiskmount will do everything else normally. autodiskmount will not also mount the volume under /Volumes that you mounted with fstab. *



So is this still an issue with Jag or does Jag do any of this differently?  I don't have Jag installed yet but I will this weekend.  I would like to mount my two extra drives as /Users and /Applications so that even if I've gotta rebuild my system I won't have to reinstall apps and data.  

Any suggestions for this on Jag?

btw:  In testing this under 10.1.5 I found that the drive I mounted using fstab (I mounted it as /test) was also mounted under /Volumes/DriveName (can't remember what I named the partition on that drive so I'll just use DriveName for example here).  It seems that autodiskmount also mounted it.  Weird??

Kent!


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