an exportfs like command for fstab

[Fraser Campbell]

On Tuesday 23 March 2004 19:28, Mel Seder wrote:
> I think you can change what NTFS files are available with the exportfs
> command.

exportfs is for nfs, probably what you meant.

> Is there a command that can be used to have the effect of 
> re-booting the PC so that changes made to /etc/fstab can take effect
> without having to re-boot?

Maybe, depends what you've changed.  If you've just changed some mount options 
then a remount might be possible.  For example if you change /usr from 
default mount options to being read-only you can do a simple remount without 
any fuss and the new options will be enabled:

  mount -o remount /usr

If you've changed the actual device to be used for a mount point that is more 
problematic.  For example, if you've moved /usr from /dev/hdc3 to /dev/sda3 
then a simple remount wouldn't be possible, you'd have to do something like 
this:

  # switch to single user
  init 1
  # unmount and remount /usr
  umount /usr
  mount /usr
  # return to your normal runlevel (not necessarily 2)
  init 2

You should only have to completely reboot if you've moved your root partition, 
even then something might be possible with pivot_root (not that I would 
bother).

You're better off not resorting to a reboot (when not strictly necessary) for 
a few reasons; first you learn more, second if you've made a mistake in your 
fstab it will almost certainly be more difficult to recover from after a 
reboot than from within the booted system.

-- 
Fraser Campbell <fraser-Txk5XLRqZ6CsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org>                 http://www.wehave.net/
Georgetown, Ontario, Canada                               Debian GNU/Linux
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