All files accessible in a Linux system are arranged in one big tree, the file hierarchy, rooted at /. These files can be spread out over several devices and they can be remote or local file system. Linux supports numerous file system types. For example it supports Ext2,. Ext3, NFS, FA16, FAT32, NTFS,Sysfs, Procfs etc. To determine the file system type or to find out what type of file systems currently mounted you need to use command called mount or df. Type df command as follows:
$ df -TOutput:
Filesystem Type 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hdb1 ext3 19228276 14737848 3513680 81% / tmpfs tmpfs 383960 4 383956 1% /dev/shm
df command report filesystem disk space usage and if you pass -T option it will report filesystem type. As you see second command displays file system type (ext3). Type, mount command as follows at shell prompt:
$ mountOutput:
/dev/hdb1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) /dev/hdb2 on /home type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) proc on /proc type proc (rw) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw) automount(pid3558) on /data type autofs (rw,fd=4,pgrp=3558,minproto=2,maxproto=4)
As you can see, second last column displays the file system type. For example first line [/dev/hdb1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)] can be interpreted as follows:
- /dev/hdb1 : Partition
- / : File system
- ext3 : File system type
- (rw,errors=remount-ro) : Mount options
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
What is the best procedure for identifying the file system type of unmounted SCSI disks (salvaged from a dead Alpha [Digital Unix 4] system)?
You can try a ‘file -s’ on the device node.
@diatoid
great hint, thanks a lot!
use “cat /etc/fstab”.
Also “fsck -N”
thanks chris
“fsck -N /dev/sda1″ was exactly what i was looking for. it turns out i am running an old ext2 , arn’t we at ext4 now?
Thank you!
Make sure you have root privileges when running ‘fsck -N ‘
It won’t complain when it is run without them and it reports ext2 in error.
> diatoid October 30, 2007
> You can try a ‘file -s’ on the device node.
This is best -it shows the info even device not mounted yet. So you can check the file system then mount -t proper type.
how to find a system up in network?
(what all the systems in a network command)
main diff b/n ntfs & fat
this won’t work for files, how do I determine the filesystem type of a bin file? I need to mount it
Typing $ df -T as administrator into root just gives me the error: $: command not found
: \
Nevermind, command works fine…Don’t put a dollar sign infront of it like it was said above to do xD I’m running ext4 btw ^_^ thanks for the article ^^
Great Thanks.
cyberciti.biz Rocks!
Keep up dude.