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Newsgroups: alt.os.linux.ubuntu
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 15:27:08 +0100
From: Niklaus Kuehnis 
Subject: Re: Question about mount command and location of files
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On Fri, 2 Mar 2007, Chris Fasano wrote:

> On Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:26:13 +0000, Blue wrote:
>>
>> Mounting does not shift the files (phyisically). It just allows them to be
>> read.
>
> Thank you.  This explanation is (somewhat) what's causing my
> misunderstanding.  If files aren't physically moved by mounting, then if I
> create a directory under hda1 (home/newdirectory) the /newdirectory is
> physically located on hda.

The directory /newdirectory itself is always physically located on 
hda. The contents of /newdirectory are located on hda if nothing has 
been mounted on that directory. If a device has been mounted on 
/newdirectory, the files in /newdirectory will be located on the 
mounted device.

> So why would any files now created under /newdirectory be physically
> located on hdb just because I mounted /dev/hdb1 to /home/newdirectory,
> since as you say "mounting does not shift files physically?"

Mounting does not copy the files from the device (e.g. hdb1) to the 
mount point (/newdirectory) or vice-versa. Mounting creates an 
address so to say through which the device is accessible.

In Linux, if nothing were mounted, no data would be accessible. 
Through mounting, devices (i.e. partitions) are given a folder (the 
mount point) through which they can be accessed.

[snip]

--
Nik
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