Re: Mystery of file systems

From: Felix Saphir (dasr060-usenet_at_yahoo.de)
Date: 07/08/05 

Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 01:41:54 +0200

Noah Roberts wrote:

> x wrote:
>> hi
>>
>> [filesystems and mountpoints]
>>
>> Someone please tell me how do we understand file systems and y do we
>> call the mount points as file systems (please keep in mind that you are
>> talking to a complete beginner of linux).

Hi!
 
> You seem to have a decent understanding actually. /proc IS a mount
> point. There is a proc filesystem which is basically a kernel interface
> api that is mounted at /proc but '/proc' is a mount point. In your
> example above /ext is a mountpoint and dks07ds02 looks like a device
> entry that would probably be better named as /dev/dks07ds02 or something
> like that (remember in unix devices are named as files). Your confusion
> is brought on by the fact that sometimes people use these terms
> interchangably.
>
> Calling a mount point a filesystem is really a misuse of terms. When
> people refer to it that way they really are refering to the filesystem
> that is mounted at that point. When people refer to devices as
> filesystems they usually mean the filesystem on that device.
>
> Hope that helps.

Just to add something: The different filesystems have different use. Eg. the
devfs is -simplified- the "file"system, where physical devices are mapped
to. It's usually mounted on /dev. Note the special use: you cannot "format
A:" with this devfs, whereas using ext2fs or reiserfs to map devices
doesn't work.

It might be helpful to look into a file "/etc/fstab" [1], where you can find
the information about where a device is mounted and which filesystem is
used.

Regards
Felix

[1] start "less /etc/fstab" in a terminal window, "q" to quit. 

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