LOFS(4FS) File Systems LOFS(4FS)

NAME

lofs - loopback virtual file system

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/mount.h>

int
mount(const char *dir, const char *virtual, int mflag, "lofs", NULL, 0);

DESCRIPTION

The loopback file system device allows new, virtual file systems to be
created, which provide access to existing files using alternate pathnames.
Once the virtual file system is created, other file systems can be mounted
within it, without affecting the original file system. However, file
systems which are subsequently mounted onto the original file system are
visible to the virtual file system, unless or until the corresponding mount
point in the virtual file system is covered by a file system mounted there.

virtual is the mount point for the virtual file system. dir is the
pathname of the existing file system. mflag specifies the mount options;
the MS_DATA bit in mflag must be set. If the MS_RDONLY bit in mflag is not
set, accesses to the loop back file system are the same as for the
underlying file system. Otherwise, all accesses in the loopback file
system will be read-only. All other mount(2) options are inherited from
the underlying file systems.

A loopback mount of / onto /tmp/newroot allows the entire file system
hierarchy to appear as if it were duplicated under /tmp/newroot, including
any file systems mounted from remote NFS servers. All files would then be
accessible either from a pathname relative to / or from a pathname relative
to /tmp/newroot until such time as a file system is mounted in /tmp/newroot
or any of its subdirectories.

Loopback mounts of / can be performed in conjunction with the chroot(2)
system call, to provide a complete virtual file system to a process or
family of processes.

Recursive traversal of loopback mount points is not allowed. After the
loopback mount of /tmp/newroot, the file /tmp/newroot/tmp/newroot does not
contain yet another file system hierarchy; rather, it appears just as
/tmp/newroot did before the loopback mount was performed (for example, as
an empty directory).

EXAMPLES

lofs file systems are mounted using:

mount -F lofs /tmp /mnt

SEE ALSO

chroot(2), mount(2), sysfs(2), lofi(4D), vfstab(5), lofiadm(8), mount(8)

NOTES

All access to entries in lofs mounted file systems map to their underlying
file system. If a mount point is made available in multiple locations via
lofs and is busy in any of those locations, an attempt to mount a file
system at that mount point fails unless the overlay flag is specified. See
mount(8). Examples of a mount point being busy within a lofs mount include
having a file system mounted on it or it being a processes' current working
directory.

WARNINGS

Because of the potential for confusing users and applications, you should
use loopback mounts with care. A loopback mount entry in /etc/vfstab must
be placed after the mount points of both directories it depends on. This
is most easily accomplished by making the loopback mount entry the last in
/etc/vfstab.

illumos November 24, 2014 illumos