Automatically mounting network shares via fstab and systemd

As handy as mounting network shares via the mount command can be, you may not want to manually mount a share each time you wish to use it. In a network with a central file server, it makes sense to configure workstations to mount network shares automatically so that every time you boot your system, the share will automatically be mounted and ready to go.

The tried and tested approach to mounting resources automatically is the /etc/fstab file. Every Linux system has a /etc/fstab file, so go ahead and look at yours. By default, this file only contains configuration for mounting your local resources, such as partitions on your hard disk. It's standard practice to add additional lines of configuration to this file to mount anything from additional hard drives to network shares.

Note

Be careful while editing your /etc/fstab file. If you accidentally alter the configuration for your local hard disk, your system won't boot the next time you...