Introduction and different fields of Linux fstab configuration file, fstab howto

The Linux /etc/fstab is a configuration file that contains information of all the partitions and storage devices in your computer. The Linux /etc/fstab contains information of where your partitions and storage devices should be mounted and how.

The following contents lists a sample Linux /etc/fstab file

LABEL=/          /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
LABEL=/boot      /boot                   ext3    defaults        1 2
devpts           /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
tmpfs            /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
proc             /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
sysfs            /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
LABEL=SWAP-sda3  swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

Additional entries are "devpts", "/proc", "tmpfs", "sysfs"

• The devpts file system provides an interface to pseudo-terminal (pty) devices. It is typically mounted at /dev/pts.

• The /proc filesystem is to provide an easy way to view kernel and information about currently running processes.

• The tmpfs is a temporary file storage facility.

• sysfs is a virtual file system which exports information about devices and drivers from the kernel device model to userspace, and is also used for configuration.

The following table describes the different fields of /etc/fstab file.