Description of problem: Under some circumstances "mount DIR" command ignores /etc/fstab and does not fail Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): util-linux-ng-2.14.1-3.2.fc10.x86_64 How reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1 optional: add a line to /etc/fstab for /mnt/tmpfs 2.cd /mnt 3.mkdir tmpfs 4.mount tmpfs or mount ./tmpfs or mount /mnt/tmpfs Actual results: Command successfull, but nothing is mounted on /mnt/tmpfs Expected results: A filesystem specified in /etc/fstab should be mounted on /mnt/tmpfs or an error should occur Additional info: The name tmpfs in the mountpoint path name obviously confuses the mount. There is the standard tmpfs filesystem line in /etc/fstab: tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 /proc/mounts and /etc/mtab are updated, but the entries look bogus, because the first field is the mountpoint, not a device: /mnt/tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
util-linux-ng-2.14.1-3.3.fc10 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 10. http://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/util-linux-ng-2.14.1-3.3.fc10
util-linux-ng-2.14.1-3.3.fc10 has been pushed to the Fedora 10 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report. If you want to test the update, you can install it with su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update util-linux-ng'. You can provide feedback for this update here: http://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F10/FEDORA-2009-5775
I have tested the update today. There is an entry for tmpfs on /dev/shm and another tmpfs on /mnt/tmpfs in my fstab. Both mount ./tmpfs and mount /mnt/tmpfs work fine, also umount is OK, but mount tmpfs is ambiguous, it can be understood as mount DEVICE or mount DIR. There is an inconsistency between mount and umount: the mount command chooses the first form (tmpfs as pseudo device name) and mounts a new filesystem on /dev/shm on the top of the already mounted filesystem. On the other hand umount tmpfs chooses the latter (tmpfs as mountpoint) and fails with "not mounted" error. In my opinion, the first field of a fstab entry for a virtual filesystem should be distinguishable from a real device name or a mountpoint name. It would prevent the described ambiguity. For example: /dev/virtual/tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 instead of: tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 However this is not a problem of util-linux-ng.
(In reply to comment #3) > prevent the described ambiguity. For example: > /dev/virtual/tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 > instead of: > tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 > However this is not a problem of util-linux-ng. The first fstab field (= source argument for mount(2) syscall) is not important for pseudo-filesystems. You can use: foo /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 or so. It's user's responsibility to use non-ambivalent fstab. Thanks for your tests Vlado.
util-linux-ng-2.14.1-3.3.fc10 has been pushed to the Fedora 10 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.