From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 12 17:04:38 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5233516A4CE for ; Fri, 12 Nov 2004 17:04:38 +0000 (GMT) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DC02043D2D for ; Fri, 12 Nov 2004 17:04:37 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id iACH4Zq00586; Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:04:35 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200411121704.iACH4Zq00586@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: jayobrien@att.net (Jay O'Brien) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:04:34 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <4194E58D.8060407@att.net> from "Jay O'Brien" at Nov 12, 2004 08:32:13 AM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: FreeBSD - questions Subject: Re: mount hides underlying files X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 17:04:38 -0000 > > Chris Hill wrote: > > On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, Jay O'Brien wrote: > > > > > >>If I mkdir /test and then place files in /test, those files > >>are no longer visible when I use /test as a mount point. The > >>files become visible again when I unmount the device. > >> > >>I have read documentation explaining this phenomenon, and I > >>would like to review that documentation again. Is it in the > >>handbook? > > > > > > Yes. There is a discussion of this at > > > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disk-organization.html > > > > Also see the following page. > > > > Chris, > > Thank you, that answers the basic question, with the word "replaces". > That is, when a filesystem is "mounted" to a directory, it "replaces" > what was there, it doesn't add to it. This is different from my > experience with other operating systems, and was confusing to me. > > I do remember seeing a more verbose description, however, that > discusses what happens to the underlying files when something is > mounted over the top of their directory; I also vaguely remember > something suggesting that this is a way to "hide" files from the > casual observer, revealing the files by unmounting the file system > that caused them to be hidden. I don't have a reason to hide files; > I remember reading the discussions, and would like to read them > again. I think that was in one of the online publications such as an OnLamp article or another of the online magazines.. But, sorry, I don't currently have a reference. ////jerry > > Jay O'Brien >