---
name: "umount"
section: "8"
platform: "macos"
package: "diskdev_cmds"
version: "757"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/umount"
---

# umount(8)

unmount filesystems

## NAME

**umount** – unmount filesystems

## SYNOPSIS

**umount** \[**-fv**\] *special* \| *node*

**umount** **-a** \| **-A** \[**-fv**\] \[**-h** *host*\] \[**-t** *type*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **umount** command unmounts a mounted filesystem (volume), removing it from the filesystem namespace. It calls the [unmount(2)](/unmount/2.md) system call to remove a *special device* or the remote node (rhost:path) from the filesystem tree at the point *node*. If either *special* or *node* are not provided, the appropriate information is taken from the list of filesystems provided by [getfsent(3)](/getfsent/3.md).

The options are as follows:

- **-a**

  All the filesystems described via [getfsent(3)](/getfsent/3.md) are unmounted.

- **-A**

  All the currently mounted filesystems except the root are unmounted.

- **-f**

  The filesystem is forcibly unmounted. Active special devices continue to work, but all other files return errors if further accesses are attempted. The root filesystem cannot be forcibly unmounted.

- **-h** *host*

  Only filesystems mounted from the specified host will be unmounted. This option implies the **-A** option and, unless otherwise specified with the **-t** option, will only unmount NFS filesystems.

- **-t** *type*

  Is used to indicate the actions should only be taken on filesystems of the specified type. More than one type may be specified in a comma separated list. The list of filesystem types can be prefixed with “no” to specify the filesystem types for which action should *not* be taken. For example, the **umount** command:

  ```
  umount -A -t nfs,hfs
  ```

  umounts all currently-mounted filesystems of the type NFS and HFS. (The **-a** option only unmounts entries in the */etc/fstab* list.)

- **-v**

  Verbose, additional information is printed out as each filesystem is unmounted.

## NOTES

Due to the complex and interwoven nature of Mac OS X, **umount** may fail often.  It is recommended that diskutil(1) (as in, \`\`diskutil unmount /mnt'') be used instead.

## SEE ALSO

[unmount(2)](/unmount/2.md), [getfsent(3)](/getfsent/3.md), [mount(8)](/mount/8.md), diskutil(1)

## HISTORY

A **umount** command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.