HTG Explains What is the Linux fstab

A lot of people don't know that Linux /etc/fstab stands for 'file system table'. And not many people are comfortable to modify the configuration of it.

• Do you know why it starts with UUID?
• Do you know you can mount NTFS partition with ntfs-3g driver?
• How about the options? auto/noauto? exec/noexec? ro/rw? sync/async? user/nouser?
• Do you know that "user" option automatically implies "exec"?
• What are dumping and pass?

Some of the minor settings are really new to me. For example, "sync" forces writing to occur immediately on execution of the command, which ideal for floppies and USB drives, but isn't entirely necessary for internal hard disk. What "async" does is allow the command to execute over an elapsed time period, perhaps when user activity dies down and the like. This is usually why you ever get a message asking you to "wait while changes are being written to the drive".

Go read the article to refresh some memory at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/38125/htg-explains-what-is-the-linux-fstab-and-how-does-it-work/