Re: fstab file

[JF Martinez <jfm2@club-internet.fr>]

> From: Bud <n7su@micron.net>
> Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 11:49:31 -0600
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> On Wed, 08 Sept 1999, on, Re: fstab file, you wrote:
> >
> >If the space between / and dev/hdc8 is really in your file then you
> >cannot mount /usr due to a syntax error in file and you cannot mount
> >the following lines bacause tyhey use /usr mount points.
> >
> Thanks Jean,
> 
> Pete was kind enough to re-do the file and I pasted it in Kedit and it worked.
> Apparently I thought I removed the spaces and tabs but did not. Would one
> consider this to be a quirk, an extreme measure by Linux that is not accounted
> for in the kernel?
> 

The kernel doesn't even know about the fstab.  It happens that in the
startup sequence there is a "mount -a -t types" who means that mount
will try mounting every partition listed in the fstab who is of the
adequate type.  If you use the short form of mounting then "mount"
will look in the fstab.  If you use the long form
"mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom" the mount ustilty will not check the
fstab but it will not let you mount a filesystem if you are not root.
In fact the kernel dooes not let the mount system call being performed
by non root uses but in Linux the mount command is a setuid root program
so non root users can mount partitions in case the fstab allows it.

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
http://www.independence.seul.org