Script to “remount” a partition (umount then mount)

Question

Im doing some experiences with NTFS(-3G) and fstab. For every change i do to fstab, I need to issue:

sudo umount /mountpoint
sudo mount /mountpoint

To check the results. Since Im doing a LOT of tests, its gets really annoying to issue umount/mount combo every time.

Is there any way I could combine these 2 commands in a single remountscript? Is there already any switch to mount that do that?

• Im using Ubuntu 10.10
• All command-line parameters passed to the script must be "re-passed" to mount comand (so I can use -a, -t type, etc)
• Preferably, only the last parameter should be passed to umount

Answer 1

In your shell (assuming bash or other compatible shell) run

function remount() { unmount "$1" && mount "$1"; }

now whenever you run remount /whatever, it'll do an unmount, then a mount.
This will expire if you close your shell. So if you want it to persist, put it in your .bashrc, .profile, or whatever applies to your case.

Answer 2

mount <something> -o remount,any_additional_options

But this won't work if you need to change fs type (e.g. from ntfs to ntfs-3g)

Answer 3

You know you can chain any two commands together on the command line by using a ; to connect them? This makes things you do in pairs really easy to run from history in the command line.

umount /path ; mount /path

You might consider using an AND operator to connect them so that mount only gets run if umount succedes, like this:

umount /path && mount /path

If you want, you can even add your editor in there like this:

umount /path ; vim /etc/fstab ; mount /path

The drive will unmount, you will be shown the fstab, and when you exit the editor it will be mounted again.

Beyond that, if you need a more generic soluton for multiple paths, the suggestion of a function is good. Also, ANY series of comands in unix can be made into a script. Just save a text file like this:

#!/bin/bash
umount /path
mount /path

Then set it to be executable:

chmod +x filename

then run it like this:

./filename

Answer 4

How about that (untested):

function remount() {
  eval last=\$$#
  umount "$last" &&
  mount "$@"
}

You can just copypaste that code in shell or append it to your .bashrc