MountTools

MountTools is a cross-platform, open-source toolkit designed to simplify mounting and managing filesystems, disk images, and networked volumes. It provides a unified set of command-line utilities, a library API, and optional user-space mounting through a FUSE-based interface. The project emphasizes reliability, scripting compatibility, and ease of automation across Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Core capabilities include mounting and unmounting operations, listing active mounts, and probing image contents. It supports image formats such as ISO, IMG, and VHD, and filesystems including FAT, NTFS, ext4, and exFAT, via native drivers or compatible interfaces. Advanced options cover loopback mounting, read-write overlays, and transparent portability between host and guest environments.

The architecture is modular, with a lightweight core, pluggable drivers for image formats and filesystems, and optional bindings for other programming languages. A FUSE layer enables non-privileged mounting on supported platforms, while a metadata catalog tracks mounts, permissions, and session data to improve reliability and auditability.

History: MountTools originated in 2010 as a collection of shell scripts and evolved into a formal toolkit. The first stable release appeared in the early 2010s, followed by major updates in 2015 and 2019 that expanded driver support and API stability. The 2.x series, released in the 2020s, emphasized cross-platform consistency and security hardening. Development is community-driven, with code hosted in a public repository and open contribution guidelines.

License and usage: MountTools is distributed under an open-source license and is used by system administrators, software packaging pipelines, and digital forensics professionals for tasks such as mounting installation media, provisioning virtual environments, and inspecting image contents.

See also: Filesystem in Userspace, Loop device, ISO 9660, FUSE, Disk image.