umount

UMOUNT(2)                  Linux Programmer's Manual                 UMOUNT(2)

NAME
       umount, umount2 - unmount filesystem

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/mount.h>

       int umount(const char *target);

       int umount2(const char *target, int flags);

DESCRIPTION
       umount()  and umount2() remove the attachment of the (topmost) filesys-
       tem mounted on target.

       Appropriate privilege (Linux: the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability) is required
       to unmount filesystems.

       Linux  2.1.116  added  the umount2() system call, which, like umount(),
       unmounts a target, but allows additional flags controlling the behavior
       of the operation:

       MNT_FORCE (since Linux 2.1.116)
              Ask  the  filesystem to abort pending requests before attempting
              the unmount.  This may allow the  unmount  to  complete  without
              waiting  for  an inaccessible server, but could cause data loss.
              If, after aborting requests, some processes  still  have  active
              references  to  the filesystem, the unmount will still fail.  As
              at Linux 4.12, MNT_FORCE is  supported  only  on  the  following
              filesystems: 9p (since Linux 2.6.16), ceph (since Linux 2.6.34),
              cifs (since Linux 2.6.12), fuse  (since  Linux  2.6.16),  lustre
              (since Linux 3.11), and NFS (since Linux 2.1.116).

       MNT_DETACH (since Linux 2.4.11)
              Perform a lazy unmount: make the mount point unavailable for new
              accesses, immediately disconnect the filesystem and all filesys-
              tems  mounted below it from each other and from the mount table,
              and actually perform the unmount when the mount point ceases  to
              be busy.

       MNT_EXPIRE (since Linux 2.6.8)
              Mark  the  mount point as expired.  If a mount point is not cur-
              rently in use, then an initial call to umount2() with this  flag
              fails  with  the  error EAGAIN, but marks the mount point as ex-
              pired.  The mount point remains expired as long as it isn't  ac-
              cessed  by  any  process.   A  second  umount2() call specifying
              MNT_EXPIRE unmounts an expired mount point.  This flag cannot be
              specified with either MNT_FORCE or MNT_DETACH.

       UMOUNT_NOFOLLOW (since Linux 2.6.34)
              Don't  dereference  target  if it is a symbolic link.  This flag
              allows security problems to be avoided in set-user-ID-root  pro-
              grams that allow unprivileged users to unmount filesystems.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       The error values given below result from  filesystem  type  independent
       errors.   Each  filesystem type may have its own special errors and its
       own special behavior.  See the Linux kernel source code for details.

       EAGAIN A call to umount2() specifying MNT_EXPIRE successfully marked an
              unbusy filesystem as expired.

       EBUSY  target could not be unmounted because it is busy.

       EFAULT target points outside the user address space.

       EINVAL target is not a mount point.

       EINVAL umount2()  was  called  with MNT_EXPIRE and either MNT_DETACH or
              MNT_FORCE.

       EINVAL (since Linux 2.6.34)
              umount2() was called with an invalid flag value in flags.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              A pathname was longer than MAXPATHLEN.

       ENOENT A pathname was empty or had a nonexistent component.

       ENOMEM The kernel could not allocate a free page to copy  filenames  or
              data into.

       EPERM  The caller does not have the required privileges.

VERSIONS
       MNT_DETACH and MNT_EXPIRE are available in glibc since version 2.11.

CONFORMING TO
       These  functions  are Linux-specific and should not be used in programs
       intended to be portable.

NOTES
   umount() and shared mount points
       Shared mount points cause any mount activity on a mount point,  includ-
       ing umount() operations, to be forwarded to every shared mount point in
       the peer group and every slave mount of that peer  group.   This  means
       that  umount()  of any peer in a set of shared mounts will cause all of
       its peers to be unmounted and all of their slaves to  be  unmounted  as
       well.

       This  propagation of unmount activity can be particularly surprising on
       systems where every mount point is shared by default.  On such systems,
       recursively  bind  mounting the root directory of the filesystem onto a
       subdirectory and then later unmounting that subdirectory  with  MNT_DE-
       TACH  will  cause  every  mount in the mount namespace to be lazily un-
       mounted.

       To ensure umount() does not propagate in this fashion, the mount  point
       may  be remounted using a mount() call with a mount_flags argument that
       includes both MS_REC and MS_PRIVATE prior to umount() being called.

   Historical details
       The original umount() function was called as umount(device)  and  would
       return  ENOTBLK  when  called with something other than a block device.
       In Linux 0.98p4, a call umount(dir) was  added,  in  order  to  support
       anonymous  devices.   In Linux 2.3.99-pre7, the call umount(device) was
       removed, leaving only umount(dir) (since now devices can be mounted  in
       more than one place, so specifying the device does not suffice).

SEE ALSO
       mount(2), mount_namespaces(7), path_resolution(7), mount(8), umount(8)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 5.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2017-09-15                         UMOUNT(2)