Bash script: checking whether a directory is mounted in Linux (2024)

What is the mountpoint command? In this post, you will learn about the mountpoint command, and in the video, a shell script is written using the mountpoint command to check whether a directory is a mount point or not.

The mountpoint command in Linux is used to determine if a directory or file is a mount point. A mount point is a directory where a filesystem is mounted, allowing access to the files within the filesystem through that directory.

The basic usage of the mountpoint command is as follows:

mountpoint [-d|-q] directory|file

In the command above, -d or -q are optional flags. -d makes the command return a description, while -q makes the command operate quietly, returning no output and only setting the exit status.

The mountpoint command checks if the given directory or file is mentioned in the /proc/self/mountinfo file. If the directory or file is a mount point, the command returns a success status (0). If the directory or file is not a mount point, or if there is an incorrect invocation, permission issue, or system error, the command returns a failure status (1 or 32).

Here’s an example of how you might use the mountpoint command:

mountpoint /mnt/mydisk

This command will check if /mnt/mydisk is a mount point. If it is, the command will return a success status and print a message indicating that /mnt/mydisk is a mount point. If it isn't, the command will return a failure status.

1. What is /proc/mounts File?

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