Filesystem Names

Filesystem Names

Filesystems don't have names per se; they are identified by their location on a disk or their position in the directory structure in these ways:

by the block and character device file names of the disk partition or logical volume that contains the filesystem (see the section "Block and Character Devices" in Chapter 1)
by a mnemonic name for the disk partition or logical volume that contains the filesystem (see the section "Creating Mnemonic Names for Device Files With ln" in Chapter 2)
by the mount point for the filesystem (see the section "Filesystem Mounting and Unmounting" in this chapter)

The filesystem identifier from the list above that you use with commands that administer filesystems (such as mkfs, mount, umount, and fsck) depends upon the command. See the reference page for the command you want to use or examples in this guide to determine which filesystem name to use.