fstab vs cli/script: cli works, fstab doesn't

[KutX9JtmXrZP]

Hi folks,

I'm not raising this as a formal issue since I'm not done testing yet. But I am looking for ideas.

I've only played around with mergerfs in the past but now I'm seriously going to be using on my daily driver system. And I've run into a strange issue. Specifically, I can run mergerfs from the cli and in a bash script. But not in fstab.

I'm using the static binaries version 2.40.2 (since I multiboot with a bunch of distros) it seems the easiest way for me to avoid "library issues" between different them (OpenMandriva, Mint (ubuntu), LMDE, MX, Devuan, and Manjaro). All use different kernels (>6.6) and DEs.

On OpenManjaro (latest stable Rock v6) when I use fstab I get dumped to a terminal (rather than kde); where I comment out the mergerfs line and kde starts just fine; and on Mint (ubuntu ver 21 w/6.8 kernel) it just boots up into cinnamon. My quick scans of dmesg and the journal didn't show anything I could work with.

Also I've never been able to get globbing to work. Maybe related, maybe not. Since not all of them use systemd I haven't checked that approach (though I'll eventually do so). While I try and figure this out I'm limiting my options to OpenMandriva and Mint (booting back and forth).

4 mechanical drives merging into 1 pool. The drives use luks (I thought about them not being loaded already) but when I tried this with unencrypted SSDs I got the same results.

Here's the section from my fstab:

mergerfs -o cache.files=off,category.create=pfrd,func.getattr=newest,dropcacheonclose=false /mnt/mech/A:/mnt/mech/B:/mnt/mech/C:mnt/mech/D /mnt/hdd

And here's the script (no laughing, I'll pretty it up later - besides it works)

`
#!/bin/bash
#MergeHDD.sh: Bash script to create the mergerfs pool for the mechanical drives

FullScriptName=$0
ScriptName=$(basename "$0")
#---------------------------------------

Mountpoint="/mnt/hdd"

BranchA="/mnt/mech/A:"
BranchB="/mnt/mech/B:"
BranchC="/mnt/mech/C:"
BranchD="/mnt/mech/D"

Pool=$BranchA$BranchB$BranchC$BranchD

#This option set requires kernel > 6.6
#---------------------------------------
MergeOptA="cache.files=off,"
MergeOptB="category.create=pfrd,"
MergeOptC="func.getattr=newest,"
MergeOptD="dropcacheonclose=false"

#--------------------------------------------------------------
#MergeOptE
#MergeOptF
#etc...

#--------------------------------------------------------------
mergerfs -o $MergeOptA$MergeOptB$MergeOptC$MergeOptD $Pool $Mountpoint

echo
echo "Script: "$ScriptName" is done"
`
As you can see, everything is defaults (same with permissions of the directories). I basically just copied the docs.

Any ideas? Something stupid like a typo I can no longer see?

Thank in advance

[trapexit]

Here's the section from my fstab:
mergerfs -o cache.files=off,category.create=pfrd,func.getattr=newest,dropcacheonclose=false /mnt/mech/A:/mnt/mech/B:/mnt/mech/C:mnt/mech/D /mnt/hdd

That's commandline usage.

fstab would be

/mnt/mech/A:/mnt/mech/B:/mnt/mech/C:mnt/mech/D /mnt/hdd  mergerfs cache.files=off,category.create=pfrd,func.getattr=newest 0 0
# or
/mnt/mech/* /mnt/hdd mergerfs cache.files=off,category.create=pfrd,func.getattr=newest 0 0

You can find examples in the docs.

https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs/latest/quickstart/

Need to ensure your mount tool understand how to call out to mounting tools like mount.mergerfs.

[trapexit]

I just tried the static build and seems the mergerfs-fusermount app is not linking statically. I'll check my build system ... must be some bug. I guess people aren't using static builds like this.

[KutX9JtmXrZP]

Thanks for getting back so quick. That might very well explain what the fstab is doing. I'll test it out asap and report back on that. So much for my copypasta skills...

[KutX9JtmXrZP]

Welp, I can definitely report that my fstab didn't like it. Tried it with and without globbing. :(

[trapexit]

mergerfs-2.41.0-rc3-10-g935392c-static-linux_amd64.tar.gz

Try this

[KutX9JtmXrZP]

On my Linux Mint 21 install that worked like a charm. Both with unencrypted ssds and encrypted mechanicals. And globbing worked. I'll try it on OpenMandriva and MX next.

Fwiw, tomorrow I was going to try both the rc3 and whatever old version Mint and debian had in their repos anyway; just to experiment and see if that might provide some sort of clue. Is there any kind of datafile I need to send you with codes/results? I still might if you think that would help you in tracking things

Also, here in my Mint rig, I did NOT set any of the permissions or attributes on the /mnt directories (as suggested in the docs (under branches). I do have those set in my OM rig, so it will get tested tomorrow anyway; along with my MX rig.

I'm attaching the log file which may help you too. A little late I know...Sorry I didn't think of it earlier
logs.tar.gz

Just curious, was that a tweaked version of the RC?

[trapexit]

As I mentioned previously the reason it wasn't working is that the apps mount.mergerfs and mergerfs-fusermount were broken. That's why it wasn't working from fstab. Nothing to do with anything else. The way mounting works is different between fstab and CLI tool.

[KutX9JtmXrZP]

I can confirm that the rc4 static build works on my systems both in fstab and from the cli/script.

Thanks you again for your help. I appreciate it