RUMP_EXT2FS(8)

NAME
rump_ext2fs - mount the ext2fs file system using a userspace server

SYNOPSIS
file-system PUFFS
pseudo-device putter

rump_ext2fs [options] special node

DESCRIPTION
The rump_ext2fs utility can be used to mount ext2fs file systems. It uses rump(3) and p2k(3) to facilitate running the file system as a server in userspace. As opposed to mount_ext2fs(8), rump_ext2fs does not use file system code within the kernel and therefore does not require kernel support except puffs(4). Apart from a minor speed penalty (starting from 10% and depending on the workload and file system in question), there is no difference to using in-kernel code.

In case mounting a file system image from a regular file, rump_ext2fs does not require the use of vnconfig(8) unlike kernel file systems. Instead, the image path can be directly passed as the special file path. The exception is if the image contains a disklabel. In this case vnconfig is required to resolve the start offset for the correct partition within the image.

It is recommended that untrusted file system images be mounted with rump_ext2fs instead of mount_ext2fs(8). Corrupt file system images commonly cause the file system to crash the entire kernel, but with rump_ext2fs only the userspace server process will dump core.

To use rump_ext2fs via mount(8), the flags -o rump and -t ext2fs should be given. Similarly, rump_ext2fs is run instead of mount_ext2fs(8) if “rump” is added to the options field of fstab(5).

Please see mount_ext2fs(8) for a full description of the available command line options.

SEE ALSO
p2k(3), puffs(3), rump(3), mount_ext2fs(8)

HISTORY
The rump_ext2fs utility first appeared in NetBSD 5.0. It is currently considered experimental.