Systemd: How to automount a USB filesystem using /etc/fstab

autofsautomountingsystemd

I want my USB filesystems to automount when I connect the device.

How do I setup automount with systemd via /etc/fstab?

Best Answer

Connect your device and find out the UUID of the filesystem by running either blkid or lsblk -f.

Add a line to /etc/fstab such as:

UUID=05C5-A73A  /mnt/32GBkey  vfat  noauto,nofail,x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.idle-timeout=2,x-systemd.device-timeout=2

Then execute:

systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart local-fs.target

Explanation:

noauto - don't mount with mount -a
nofail - boot will continue even if this mount point is not mounted successfully
x-systemd.automount tell systemd to automount this etnry
x-systemd.idle-timeout=2 - wait 2 seconds before unmounting the device after last usage
x-systemd.device-timeout=2 - wait only 2 seconds before giving No such device if the device is not connected

Note:

There are no quotes around the UUID number.
The mount point directory doesn't need to exist - it will be created

For more information about the options available, see systemd.mount(5)

Related Solutions

Systemd Automount vs Autofs – Comparison and Use Cases

I think you've largely answered your own question.

Systemd thinks about most things in a "just in time" manager, so adding automount was an obvious extension. The configuration uses a common style, but isn't super flexible.

Autofs is the old way we used to do this. It's flexible, the config is kind of complex/weird, and it's probably not installed by default.

You probably want systemd unless your needs are complex. A simple automount setup guide is here: http://blog.tomecek.net/post/automount-with-systemd/

How to execute a script after every systemd automount

I can only poiting the way.

cat /etc/udev/rules.d/bb-clam.rules 
KERNEL=="sd[b-z]*", SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", TAG+="systemd", ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}="clamtk.service"

this triggers my unit clamtk.service cat /etc/systemd/system/clamtk.service

[Unit]
Description=clamtk
Requires=dev-media0.device

[Service]
Type=simple
User=alex
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c "/usr/local/bin/clam"
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=15s

[Install]
WantedBy=multiuser.target

But this works only good if your unit is started as user, and the unit is triggerd also for usb-harddrives.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Systemd Automount vs Autofs – Comparison and Use Cases

How to execute a script after every systemd automount

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