optional mounts in fstab?

[Bill Davidsen]

Tom Horsley wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:37:29 -0500
> Bill Davidsen wrote:
>
>> Defining the mount as "noauto" doesn't help, the boot still tries to do the
>> fsck, and still fails. Moreover, I really want the unit mounted if present.
>
> The fsck is (I believe) controlled independently from noauto
> by one of the two obscure numbers on the end of the mount
> line (which may actually be documented in the fstab
> man page).
>
It is, that's what I was mentioning in the 2nd paragraph, the fsck field 
controls the order in which checks are done before mounting, to be sure that 
mounts on mounts obey the law of least astonishment. (Plauger's Law)

> Using noauto though means it won't mount it at all. You'd
> have to do something like put a mount command in /etc/rc.d/rc.local
> that could simply fail if the device isn't connected.
>
Yes, that was an attempt to avoid the hang on boot, what I really need is more 
complex, and I may have to put it in rc.local to make it work, although I will 
test on Fedora using the nofail option. As I look at the RHEL world, I expect 
RHEL7 to be along before too long. Perhaps that would satisfy all requirements.
It depends on what the 'nofail' option does if the UUID is present but doesn't 
pass fsck, is it reported and ignored or does it hang the boot?

Thanks for the reply.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot