Give an overview of UNIX based file systems.
UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems allocate a device name to each device, other than this isn't how the files on that device are accessed. in its place UNIX creates a virtual file system which makes all the files on all the devices appear to exist under the one hierarchy. This means, in UNIX there is one root directory and every file existing on the system is located under it somewhere. Additionally, the UNIX root directory doesn't have to be in any physical place. It mightn't be on your first hard drive - it mightn't even be on your computer. UNIX is able to use a network shared resource as its root directory.
To gain access to files on one more device you must first inform the operating system where in the directory tree you would like those files to appear. This process is called as mounting a file system. For instance to access the files on a CD-ROM, casually, one ought to tell the operating system "Take the file system from this CD-ROM and make it appear under the directory /mnt". The directory specified to the operating system is called as the mount point - in this case it is /mnt. The /mnt directory exist on all Unix systems as a specified in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard and is intended specifically for use as a mount point for temporary media like floppy disks or CDs. It perhaps empty or it may contain subdirectories for mounting individual devices. Usually, only the administrator (that is root user) may authorize the mounting of file systems.
Unix-like operating systems habitually include software and tools that assist in the mounting process and provide it new functionality. A few of these strategies have been coined "auto-mounting" as a reflection of their purpose.