Fstabdriven

Fstabdriven is a term used in some technical discussions to describe software, configurations, or operational patterns whose behavior is driven by the entries in the Unix/Linux /etc/fstab file. In this usage, the fstab's definitions of device, mount point, filesystem type, and mount options serve as the primary source of truth for how storage is mounted and accessed on a system.

Practically, fstabdriven systems read /etc/fstab during boot or on demand to determine which filesystems to mount, with mount options guiding permissions, automounting, and failover behavior. The approach leverages standard fields such as device, mount point, fstype, options, dump, and pass, and commonly relies on identifiers like UUIDs or LABELs to locate devices.

Use cases include environments requiring reproducible mount configurations across machines, disaster recovery scenarios where a known fstab-backed layout must be restored, and lightweight images or containers where the mount policy is centralized in a single file.

Advantages include predictability, ease of audit, and compatibility with existing tooling. Limitations include sensitivity to edits in fstab, potential boot delays if mounts fail or are unavailable, and the possibility that changes in storage topology are not reflected until the file is updated. The term remains informal and non-standard.

Implementation patterns range from simple startup scripts that parse /etc/fstab and issue mount commands, to systemd units that rely on fstab entries, to configuration management that enforces consistency with the file as the canonical definition. Some setups pair fstabdriven behavior with autofs or systemd automount to balance performance and reliability.

See also fstab, mount, autofs, systemd, automount.