What is the findmnt utility for in Linux

findmnt is a utility in Linux that allows you to get information about the current mount points of file systems.

What is findmnt for?

It can be useful, for example, to analyze the current state of a system, to search for a specific file system, or to monitor the process of mounting and unmounting file systems. findmnt will show you all mounted directories, including all types of file systems. If you only need mount points from the fstab file, use the -t parameter, in which case only the file systems specified in fstab will be displayed.

Findmnt can be useful for various tasks, such as searching for a specific file system, analyzing the current state of the system, monitoring the process of mounting and unmounting file systems, and much more. Findmnt provides flexible output customization using various command line options, allowing you to get only the information you need. It can also be used in scripts to automate certain tasks.

How to install

The findmnt utility usually comes with the util-linux package, which is included in most Linux distributions by default. In most cases, there is no need to install findmnt separately, as it is already installed on your system.

However, if for some reason you do not have the findmnt utility, you can install it using the package manager that your distribution uses.

For Debian and Ubuntu, for example, you can use the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install util-linux

For Fedora and CentOS, the command will look like this:

sudo yum install util-linux

After successful installation, the findmnt command will be available for use.