---
name: "xvmount"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "xvmount"
version: "3.7-18"
release: "Debian 5.0 (Lenny)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/xvmount"
---

# xvmount(1)

device mounter with OpenLook interface

## NAME

xvmount - device mounter with OpenLook interface

## SYNOPSIS

**xvmount** \[ *generic XView arguments* \] \[ **-qh** \] \[ **-d \<directory\>** \]

## DESCRIPTION

**xvmount** is a small graphical frontend for mounting devices. The Open Windows user  interface contains a number of buttons for mounting and unmounting  the different devices. If the user presses one of the mount buttons  **xvmount** calls the corresponding  *[mount(8)](/mount/8.md)* system call to perform the actual device mounting.  After successfully mounting the device the label of the button is changed to 'umount'. Pushing the umount button results in the corresponding  *[umount(8)](/umount/8.md)* system call.

Before unmounting a disk the  filesystems super-block is written by a sync system call.

Errors and status messages are displayed in the status line of the window.

To mount and umount devices the user needs permissions by corresponding settings in the */etc/fstab* file.

## OPTIONS

- generic XView arguments

  xvmount should accept the generic tool arguments described in **xview**(1).

- *-d directory*

  Use the given directory as the location of the configuration file "xvmounttab" instead of the global /etc.

- *-q*

  Add a Quit button to the main window. Useful for users of window managers which do not provide their own Dismiss buttons by default.

- *-h*

  Display a summary of options.

## CONFIGURATION

The number of buttons and the devices which are available for mounting are  described by a configuration file named "xvmounttab". Usually this file should be found in "/etc". A different location can be specified as command line option or by the environment variable XVMOUNTPATH. The maximal number of mountable devices is 16.

The config file has the following format:

    \#####################################################\
     \#\
     \# Config file for xvmount (v3.7)\
     \#\
     \# name     directory

    Floppy:   /floppy

    Syquest:  /mnt\
     CD-ROM:   /cdrom

    Special:  /special

The '#' sign marks the rest of a line as a comment. Empty lines are allowed.  Each line has to contain two entries: the name of the label and the mounting directory in the same notation as the corresponding entry in the */etc/fstab* file.

- The configuration file can be generated automatically or interactively

  from /etc/fstab by  [**xvmountconfig**(8)](/xvmountconfig/8.md).

## HELP-INTERFACE

For an online help you can use the integrated XView help. Hit the \<Help\> key over a control to find out what it does.  If you don't have a \<Help\> key, you can use the xmodmap (1) command to make one of your function keys act as a help key.  For example, **xmodmap -e 'keysym F1 = Help'** would make F1 bring up help messages.

## ENVIRONMENT

XVMOUNTPATH - search path for xvmounttab

## FILES

/etc/xvmounttab - config file for xvmount\
 /etc/fstab       - mountable filesystem table

## SEE ALSO

[mount(8)](/mount/8.md), [umount(8)](/umount/8.md), [fstab(5)](/fstab/5.md), [sync(1)](/sync/1.md), [xvmountconfig(8)](/xvmountconfig/8.md)

## AUTHOR

Thomas Uhl, \<uhl@fh-heilbronn.de\>\
 V.Ossenkopf, \<ossk@ph1.uni-koeln.de\> (Version 3.7)

## COPYRIGHT

v1.0 - 7.2.1993 \
 v1.1 - 28.3.1993 \
 v2.0 - 17.4.1993 \
 v2.5 - 5.5.1993 \
 v3.0 - 22.5.1993 \
 v3.5 - 14.8.1993 \
 v3.6 - 20.8.1994 \
 v3.7 - 30.8.2003

Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Uhl

This software may be used and distributed according to the terms of the GNU Public License.