UMOUNT
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (8)
Updated: 26 July 1997
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NAME
umount - unmount file systems
SYNOPSIS
umount
[-hV]
umount -a
[-dflnrv]
[-t
vfstype]
[-O
options]
umount
[-dflnrv]
{dir|device}...
DESCRIPTION
The
umount
command detaches the file system(s) mentioned from the file hierarchy.
A file system is specified by giving the directory where it
has been mounted. Giving the special device on which the file system lives
may also work, but is obsolete, mainly because it will fail
in case this device was mounted on more than one directory.
Note that a file system cannot be unmounted when it is `busy' -
for example, when there are open files on it, or when some process
has its working directory there, or when a swap file on it is in use.
The offending process could even be
umount
itself - it opens libc, and libc in its turn may open for example
locale files.
A lazy unmount avoids this problem.
Options for the
umount
command:
- -V
-
Print version and exit.
- -h
-
Print help message and exit.
- -v
-
Verbose mode.
- -n
-
Unmount without writing in
/etc/mtab.
- -r
-
In case unmounting fails, try to remount read-only.
- -d
-
In case the unmounted device was a loop device, also
free this loop device.
- -i
-
Don't call the /sbin/umount.<filesystem> helper even if it exists. By default /sbin/umount.<filesystem> helper is called if one exists.
- -a
-
All of the file systems described in
/etc/mtab
are unmounted. (With
umount
version 2.7 and later: the
proc
filesystem is not unmounted.)
- -t vfstype
-
Indicate that the actions should only be taken on file systems of the
specified type. More than one type may be specified in a comma separated
list. The list of file system types can be prefixed with
no
to specify the file system types on which no action should be taken.
- -O options
-
Indicate that the actions should only be taken on file systems with
the specified options in
/etc/fstab.
More than one option type may be specified in a comma separated
list. Each option can be prefixed with
no
to specify options for which no action should be taken.
- -f
-
Force unmount (in case of an unreachable NFS system).
(Requires kernel 2.1.116 or later.)
- -l
-
Lazy unmount. Detach the filesystem from the filesystem hierarchy now,
and cleanup all references to the filesystem as soon as it is not busy
anymore.
(Requires kernel 2.4.11 or later.)
THE LOOP DEVICE
The
umount
command will free the loop device (if any) associated
with the mount, in case it finds the option `loop=...' in
/etc/mtab,
or when the -d option was given.
Any pending loop devices can be freed using `losetup -d', see
losetup(8).
NOTES
The syntax of external umount helpers is:
/sbin/umount.<suffix>
{dir|device}
[-nlfvr]
where the <suffix> is filesystem type or a value from "uhelper=" mtab option.
The uhelper (unprivileged umount helper) is possible to used when non-root user
wants to umount a mountpoint which is not defined in the /etc/fstab file (e.g
devices mounted by HAL).
FILES
/etc/mtab
table of mounted file systems
SEE ALSO
umount(2),
mount(8),
losetup(8).
HISTORY
A
umount
command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
AVAILABILITY
The umount command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.