[Grml] Loop mount not automatically cleaned

Michael Schierl schierlm at gmx.de
Tue Feb 6 20:30:41 CET 2007


][ schrieb:
> Hi, 
> 
> I noticed that loop mounts are not automatically cleaned in my system. 
> Is there any way that I can fix it?

How do you mount it (with "-o loop" or with losetup)?
How do you unmount it (by giving the mountpoint, the image file or the
loop device)?
Is your /etc/mtab a file or is it a symbolic link to /proc/mounts?

The behaviour I know is that the loop device will *not* be freed if
a) /etc/mtab is a link to /proc/mounts *or*
b) you gave the loop device explicitly as umount argument *or*
c) you mounted it with losetup explicitly *or*
d) you used -n when mounting (so the mountpoint does not end up in mtab)

But different mount versions do it differently (busybox mount even has
its own parameter for it, because embedded systems usually use the /mtab
symlink).

You can always free your loop devices with losetup.

Michael



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