| # |
| # For a description of the syntax of this configuration file, |
| # see scripts/kbuild/config-language.txt. |
| # |
| |
| menu "Linux System Utilities" |
| |
| config DMESG |
| bool "dmesg" |
| default n |
| help |
| dmesg is used to examine or control the kernel ring buffer. When the |
| Linux kernel prints messages to the system log, they are stored in |
| the kernel ring buffer. You can use dmesg to print the kernel's ring |
| buffer, clear the kernel ring buffer, change the size of the kernel |
| ring buffer, and change the priority level at which kernel messages |
| are also logged to the system console. Enable this option if you |
| wish to enable the 'dmesg' utility. |
| |
| config FEATURE_DMESG_PRETTY |
| bool "Pretty dmesg output" |
| default y |
| depends on DMESG |
| help |
| If you wish to scrub the syslog level from the output, say 'Y' here. |
| The syslog level is a string prefixed to every line with the form "<#>". |
| |
| With this option you will see: |
| # dmesg |
| Linux version 2.6.17.4 ..... |
| BIOS-provided physical RAM map: |
| BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f000 (usable) |
| |
| Without this option you will see: |
| # dmesg |
| <5>Linux version 2.6.17.4 ..... |
| <6>BIOS-provided physical RAM map: |
| <6> BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f000 (usable) |
| |
| config FBSET |
| bool "fbset" |
| default n |
| help |
| fbset is used to show or change the settings of a Linux frame buffer |
| device. The frame buffer device provides a simple and unique |
| interface to access a graphics display. Enable this option |
| if you wish to enable the 'fbset' utility. |
| |
| config FEATURE_FBSET_FANCY |
| bool "Turn on extra fbset options" |
| default n |
| depends on FBSET |
| help |
| This option enables extended fbset options, allowing one to set the |
| framebuffer size, color depth, etc. interface to access a graphics |
| display. Enable this option if you wish to enable extended fbset |
| options. |
| |
| config FEATURE_FBSET_READMODE |
| bool "Turn on fbset readmode support" |
| default n |
| depends on FBSET |
| help |
| This option allows fbset to read the video mode database stored by |
| default as /etc/fb.modes, which can be used to set frame buffer |
| device to pre-defined video modes. |
| |
| config FDFLUSH |
| bool "fdflush" |
| default n |
| help |
| fdflush is only needed when changing media on slightly-broken |
| removable media drives. It is used to make Linux believe that a |
| hardware disk-change switch has been actuated, which causes Linux to |
| forget anything it has cached from the previous media. If you have |
| such a slightly-broken drive, you will need to run fdflush every time |
| you change a disk. Most people have working hardware and can safely |
| leave this disabled. |
| |
| config FDFORMAT |
| bool "fdformat" |
| default n |
| help |
| fdformat is used to low-level format a floppy disk. |
| |
| config FDISK |
| bool "fdisk" |
| default n |
| help |
| The fdisk utility is used to divide hard disks into one or more |
| logical disks, which are generally called partitions. This utility |
| can be used to list and edit the set of partitions or BSD style |
| 'disk slices' that are defined on a hard drive. |
| |
| config FDISK_SUPPORT_LARGE_DISKS |
| bool "Support over 4GB disks" |
| default y |
| depends on FDISK |
| help |
| Enable this option to support large disks > 4GB. |
| |
| config FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE |
| bool "Write support" |
| default y |
| depends on FDISK |
| help |
| Enabling this option allows you to create or change a partition table |
| and write those changes out to disk. If you leave this option |
| disabled, you will only be able to view the partition table. |
| |
| config FEATURE_AIX_LABEL |
| bool "Support AIX disklabels" |
| default n |
| depends on FDISK && FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE |
| help |
| Enabling this option allows you to create or change AIX disklabels. |
| Most people can safely leave this option disabled. |
| |
| config FEATURE_SGI_LABEL |
| bool "Support SGI disklabels" |
| default n |
| depends on FDISK && FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE |
| help |
| Enabling this option allows you to create or change SGI disklabels. |
| Most people can safely leave this option disabled. |
| |
| config FEATURE_SUN_LABEL |
| bool "Support SUN disklabels" |
| default n |
| depends on FDISK && FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE |
| help |
| Enabling this option allows you to create or change SUN disklabels. |
| Most people can safely leave this option disabled. |
| |
| config FEATURE_OSF_LABEL |
| bool "Support BSD disklabels" |
| default n |
| depends on FDISK && FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE |
| help |
| Enabling this option allows you to create or change BSD disklabels |
| and define and edit BSD disk slices. |
| |
| config FEATURE_FDISK_ADVANCED |
| bool "Support expert mode" |
| default n |
| depends on FDISK && FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE |
| help |
| Enabling this option allows you to do terribly unsafe things like |
| define arbitrary drive geometry, move the beginning of data in a |
| partition, and similarly evil things. Unless you have a very good |
| reason you would be wise to leave this disabled. |
| |
| config FINDFS |
| bool "findfs" |
| default n |
| select VOLUMEID |
| help |
| This is similar to the findfs program that is part of the e2fsprogs |
| package. However, the e2fsprogs version only support ext2/3. This |
| version supports those in addition to FAT, swap, and ReiserFS. |
| WARNING: |
| With all submodules selected, it will add ~8k to busybox. |
| |
| config FREERAMDISK |
| bool "freeramdisk" |
| default n |
| help |
| Linux allows you to create ramdisks. This utility allows you to |
| delete them and completely free all memory that was used for the |
| ramdisk. For example, if you boot Linux into a ramdisk and later |
| pivot_root, you may want to free the memory that is allocated to the |
| ramdisk. If you have no use for freeing memory from a ramdisk, leave |
| this disabled. |
| |
| config FSCK_MINIX |
| bool "fsck_minix" |
| default n |
| help |
| The minix filesystem is a nice, small, compact, read-write filesystem |
| with little overhead. It is not a journaling filesystem however and |
| can experience corruption if it is not properly unmounted or if the |
| power goes off in the middle of a write. This utility allows you to |
| check for and attempt to repair any corruption that occurs to a minix |
| filesystem. |
| |
| config MKFS_MINIX |
| bool "mkfs_minix" |
| default n |
| help |
| The minix filesystem is a nice, small, compact, read-write filesystem |
| with little overhead. If you wish to be able to create minix filesystems |
| this utility will do the job for you. |
| |
| comment "Minix filesystem support" |
| depends on FSCK_MINIX || MKFS_MINIX |
| |
| config FEATURE_MINIX2 |
| bool "Support Minix fs v2 (fsck_minix/mkfs_minix)" |
| default y |
| depends on FSCK_MINIX || MKFS_MINIX |
| help |
| If you wish to be able to create version 2 minix filesystems, enable this. |
| If you enabled 'mkfs_minix' then you almost certainly want to be using the |
| version 2 filesystem support. |
| |
| config GETOPT |
| bool "getopt" |
| default n |
| help |
| The getopt utility is used to break up (parse) options in command |
| lines to make it easy to write complex shell scripts that also check |
| for legal (and illegal) options. If you want to write horribly |
| complex shell scripts, or use some horribly complex shell script |
| written by others, this utility may be for you. Most people will |
| wisely leave this disabled. |
| |
| config HEXDUMP |
| bool "hexdump" |
| default n |
| help |
| The hexdump utility is used to display binary data in a readable |
| way that is comparable to the output from most hex editors. |
| |
| config FEATURE_HEXDUMP_REVERSE |
| bool "Support -R, reverse of 'hexdump -Cv'" |
| default n |
| depends on HEXDUMP |
| help |
| The hexdump utility is used to display binary data in an ascii |
| readable way. This option creates binary data from an ascii input. |
| NB: this option is non-standard. It's unwise to use it in scripts |
| aimed to be portable. |
| |
| config HD |
| bool "hd" |
| default n |
| select HEXDUMP |
| help |
| hd is an alias to hexdump -C. |
| |
| config HWCLOCK |
| bool "hwclock" |
| default n |
| help |
| The hwclock utility is used to read and set the hardware clock |
| on a system. This is primarily used to set the current time on |
| shutdown in the hardware clock, so the hardware will keep the |
| correct time when Linux is _not_ running. |
| |
| config FEATURE_HWCLOCK_LONG_OPTIONS |
| bool "Support long options (--hctosys,...)" |
| default n |
| depends on HWCLOCK && GETOPT_LONG |
| help |
| By default, the hwclock utility only uses short options. If you |
| are overly fond of its long options, such as --hctosys, --utc, etc) |
| then enable this option. |
| |
| config FEATURE_HWCLOCK_ADJTIME_FHS |
| bool "Use FHS /var/lib/hwclock/adjtime" |
| default y |
| depends on HWCLOCK |
| help |
| Starting with FHS 2.3, the adjtime state file is supposed to exist |
| at /var/lib/hwclock/adjtime instead of /etc/adjtime. If you wish |
| to use the FHS behavior, answer Y here, otherwise answer N for the |
| classic /etc/adjtime path. |
| |
| http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARLIBHWCLOCKSTATEDIRECTORYFORHWCLO |
| |
| config IPCRM |
| bool "ipcrm" |
| default n |
| select FEATURE_SUID |
| help |
| The ipcrm utility allows the removal of System V interprocess |
| communication (IPC) objects and the associated data structures |
| from the system. |
| |
| config IPCS |
| bool "ipcs" |
| default n |
| select FEATURE_SUID |
| help |
| The ipcs utility is used to provide information on the currently |
| allocated System V interprocess (IPC) objects in the system. |
| |
| config LOSETUP |
| bool "losetup" |
| default n |
| help |
| losetup is used to associate or detach a loop device with a regular |
| file or block device, and to query the status of a loop device. This |
| version does not currently support enabling data encryption. |
| |
| config MDEV |
| bool "mdev" |
| default n |
| help |
| mdev is a mini-udev implementation for dynamically creating device |
| nodes in the /dev directory. |
| |
| For more information, please see docs/mdev.txt |
| |
| config FEATURE_MDEV_CONF |
| bool "Support /etc/mdev.conf" |
| default n |
| depends on MDEV |
| help |
| Add support for the mdev config file to control ownership and |
| permissions of the device nodes. |
| |
| For more information, please see docs/mdev.txt |
| |
| config FEATURE_MDEV_RENAME |
| bool "Support subdirs/symlinks" |
| default n |
| depends on FEATURE_MDEV_CONF |
| help |
| Add support for renaming devices and creating symlinks. |
| |
| For more information, please see docs/mdev.txt |
| |
| config FEATURE_MDEV_EXEC |
| bool "Support command execution at device addition/removal" |
| default n |
| depends on FEATURE_MDEV_CONF |
| help |
| This adds support for an optional field to /etc/mdev.conf for |
| executing commands when devices are created/removed. |
| |
| For more information, please see docs/mdev.txt |
| |
| config FEATURE_MDEV_LOAD_FIRMWARE |
| bool "Support loading of firmwares" |
| default n |
| depends on MDEV |
| help |
| Some devices need to load firmware before they can be usable. |
| |
| These devices will request userspace look up the files in |
| /lib/firmware/ and if it exists, send it to the kernel for |
| loading into the hardware. |
| |
| config MKSWAP |
| bool "mkswap" |
| default n |
| help |
| The mkswap utility is used to configure a file or disk partition as |
| Linux swap space. This allows Linux to use the entire file or |
| partition as if it were additional RAM, which can greatly increase |
| the capability of low-memory machines. This additional memory is |
| much slower than real RAM, but can be very helpful at preventing your |
| applications being killed by the Linux out of memory (OOM) killer. |
| Once you have created swap space using 'mkswap' you need to enable |
| the swap space using the 'swapon' utility. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MKSWAP_V0 |
| bool "Version 0 support" |
| default n |
| depends on MKSWAP |
| # depends on MKSWAP && DEPRECATED |
| help |
| Enable support for the old v0 style. |
| If your kernel is older than 2.1.117, then v0 support is the |
| only option. |
| |
| config MORE |
| bool "more" |
| default n |
| help |
| more is a simple utility which allows you to read text one screen |
| sized page at a time. If you want to read text that is larger than |
| the screen, and you are using anything faster than a 300 baud modem, |
| you will probably find this utility very helpful. If you don't have |
| any need to reading text files, you can leave this disabled. |
| |
| config FEATURE_USE_TERMIOS |
| bool "Use termios to manipulate the screen" |
| default y |
| depends on MORE || TOP |
| help |
| This option allows utilities such as 'more' and 'top' to determine |
| the size of the screen. If you leave this disabled, your utilities |
| that display things on the screen will be especially primitive and |
| will be unable to determine the current screen size, and will be |
| unable to move the cursor. |
| |
| config VOLUMEID |
| bool "Routines for detecting label and uuid on common filesystems" |
| default n |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_EXT |
| bool "Ext filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_REISERFS |
| bool "Reiser filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_FAT |
| bool "fat filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_HFS |
| bool "hfs filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_JFS |
| bool "jfs filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_UFS |
| ### bool "ufs filesystem" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_XFS |
| bool "xfs filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_NTFS |
| bool "ntfs filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_ISO9660 |
| bool "iso9660 filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_UDF |
| bool "udf filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_LUKS |
| bool "luks filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_LINUXSWAP |
| bool "linux swap filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_LVM |
| ### bool "lvm" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_CRAMFS |
| bool "cramfs filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_HPFS |
| ### bool "hpfs filesystem" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_ROMFS |
| bool "romfs filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_SYSV |
| bool "sysv filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_MINIX |
| ### bool "minix filesystem" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| ### These only detect partition tables - not used (yet?) |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_MAC |
| ### bool "mac filesystem" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| ### |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_MSDOS |
| ### bool "msdos filesystem" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_OCFS2 |
| bool "ocfs2 filesystem" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_HIGHPOINTRAID |
| ### bool "highpoint raid" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_ISWRAID |
| ### bool "intel raid" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_LSIRAID |
| ### bool "lsi raid" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_VIARAID |
| ### bool "via raid" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_SILICONRAID |
| ### bool "silicon raid" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_NVIDIARAID |
| ### bool "nvidia raid" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| ### config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_PROMISERAID |
| ### bool "promise raid" |
| ### default n |
| ### depends on VOLUMEID |
| ### help |
| ### TODO |
| |
| config FEATURE_VOLUMEID_LINUXRAID |
| bool "linuxraid" |
| default n |
| depends on VOLUMEID |
| help |
| TODO |
| |
| config MOUNT |
| bool "mount" |
| default n |
| help |
| All files and filesystems in Unix are arranged into one big directory |
| tree. The 'mount' utility is used to graft a filesystem onto a |
| particular part of the tree. A filesystem can either live on a block |
| device, or it can be accessible over the network, as is the case with |
| NFS filesystems. Most people using BusyBox will also want to enable |
| the 'mount' utility. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_FAKE |
| bool "Support option -f" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT |
| help |
| Enable support for faking a file system mount. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_VERBOSE |
| bool "Support option -v" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT |
| help |
| Enable multi-level -v[vv...] verbose messages. Useful if you |
| debug mount problems and want to see what is exactly passed |
| to the kernel. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_HELPERS |
| bool "Support mount helpers" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT |
| help |
| Enable mounting of virtual file systems via external helpers. |
| E.g. "mount obexfs#-b00.11.22.33.44.55 /mnt" will in effect call |
| "obexfs -b00.11.22.33.44.55 /mnt" |
| Also "mount -t sometype [-o opts] fs /mnt" will try |
| "sometype [-o opts] fs /mnt" if simple mount syscall fails. |
| The idea is to use such virtual filesystems in /etc/fstab. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_LABEL |
| bool "Support specifiying devices by label or UUID" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT |
| select VOLUMEID |
| help |
| This allows for specifying a device by label or uuid, rather than by |
| name. This feature utilizes the same functionality as findfs. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_NFS |
| bool "Support mounting NFS file systems" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT |
| select FEATURE_HAVE_RPC |
| select FEATURE_SYSLOG |
| help |
| Enable mounting of NFS file systems. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_CIFS |
| bool "Support mounting CIFS/SMB file systems" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT |
| help |
| Enable support for samba mounts. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_FLAGS |
| depends on MOUNT |
| bool "Support lots of -o flags in mount" |
| default y |
| help |
| Without this, mount only supports ro/rw/remount. With this, it |
| supports nosuid, suid, dev, nodev, exec, noexec, sync, async, atime, |
| noatime, diratime, nodiratime, loud, bind, move, shared, slave, |
| private, unbindable, rshared, rslave, rprivate, and runbindable. |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_FSTAB |
| depends on MOUNT |
| bool "Support /etc/fstab and -a" |
| default y |
| help |
| Support mount all and looking for files in /etc/fstab. |
| |
| config PIVOT_ROOT |
| bool "pivot_root" |
| default n |
| help |
| The pivot_root utility swaps the mount points for the root filesystem |
| with some other mounted filesystem. This allows you to do all sorts |
| of wild and crazy things with your Linux system and is far more |
| powerful than 'chroot'. |
| |
| Note: This is for initrd in linux 2.4. Under initramfs (introduced |
| in linux 2.6) use switch_root instead. |
| |
| config RDATE |
| bool "rdate" |
| default n |
| help |
| The rdate utility allows you to synchronize the date and time of your |
| system clock with the date and time of a remote networked system using |
| the RFC868 protocol, which is built into the inetd daemon on most |
| systems. |
| |
| config READPROFILE |
| bool "readprofile" |
| default n |
| help |
| This allows you to parse /proc/profile for basic profiling. |
| |
| config RTCWAKE |
| bool "rtcwake" |
| default n |
| help |
| Enter a system sleep state until specified wakeup time. |
| |
| config SETARCH |
| bool "setarch" |
| default n |
| help |
| The linux32 utility is used to create a 32bit environment for the |
| specified program (usually a shell). It only makes sense to have |
| this util on a system that supports both 64bit and 32bit userland |
| (like amd64/x86, ppc64/ppc, sparc64/sparc, etc...). |
| |
| config SWAPONOFF |
| bool "swaponoff" |
| default n |
| help |
| This option enables both the 'swapon' and the 'swapoff' utilities. |
| Once you have created some swap space using 'mkswap', you also need |
| to enable your swap space with the 'swapon' utility. The 'swapoff' |
| utility is used, typically at system shutdown, to disable any swap |
| space. If you are not using any swap space, you can leave this |
| option disabled. |
| |
| config SWITCH_ROOT |
| bool "switch_root" |
| default n |
| help |
| The switch_root utility is used from initramfs to select a new |
| root device. Under initramfs, you have to use this instead of |
| pivot_root. (Stop reading here if you don't care why.) |
| |
| Booting with initramfs extracts a gzipped cpio archive into rootfs |
| (which is a variant of ramfs/tmpfs). Because rootfs can't be moved |
| or unmounted*, pivot_root will not work from initramfs. Instead, |
| switch_root deletes everything out of rootfs (including itself), |
| does a mount --move that overmounts rootfs with the new root, and |
| then execs the specified init program. |
| |
| * Because the Linux kernel uses rootfs internally as the starting |
| and ending point for searching through the kernel's doubly linked |
| list of active mount points. That's why. |
| |
| config UMOUNT |
| bool "umount" |
| default n |
| help |
| When you want to remove a mounted filesystem from its current mount point, |
| for example when you are shutting down the system, the 'umount' utility is |
| the tool to use. If you enabled the 'mount' utility, you almost certainly |
| also want to enable 'umount'. |
| |
| config FEATURE_UMOUNT_ALL |
| bool "Support option -a" |
| default n |
| depends on UMOUNT |
| help |
| Support -a option to unmount all currently mounted filesystems. |
| |
| comment "Common options for mount/umount" |
| depends on MOUNT || UMOUNT |
| |
| config FEATURE_MOUNT_LOOP |
| bool "Support loopback mounts" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT || UMOUNT |
| help |
| Enabling this feature allows automatic mounting of files (containing |
| filesystem images) via the linux kernel's loopback devices. The mount |
| command will detect you are trying to mount a file instead of a block |
| device, and transparently associate the file with a loopback device. |
| The umount command will also free that loopback device. |
| |
| You can still use the 'losetup' utility (to manually associate files |
| with loop devices) if you need to do something advanced, such as |
| specify an offset or cryptographic options to the loopback device. |
| (If you don't want umount to free the loop device, use "umount -D".) |
| |
| config FEATURE_MTAB_SUPPORT |
| bool "Support for the old /etc/mtab file" |
| default n |
| depends on MOUNT || UMOUNT |
| select FEATURE_MOUNT_FAKE |
| help |
| Historically, Unix systems kept track of the currently mounted |
| partitions in the file "/etc/mtab". These days, the kernel exports |
| the list of currently mounted partitions in "/proc/mounts", rendering |
| the old mtab file obsolete. (In modern systems, /etc/mtab should be |
| a symlink to /proc/mounts.) |
| |
| The only reason to have mount maintain an /etc/mtab file itself is if |
| your stripped-down embedded system does not have a /proc directory. |
| If you must use this, keep in mind it's inherently brittle (for |
| example a mount under chroot won't update it), can't handle modern |
| features like separate per-process filesystem namespaces, requires |
| that your /etc directory be writeable, tends to get easily confused |
| by --bind or --move mounts, won't update if you rename a directory |
| that contains a mount point, and so on. (In brief: avoid.) |
| |
| About the only reason to use this is if you've removed /proc from |
| your kernel. |
| |
| endmenu |