Is it possible to set noatime as default for all mounts?

[Paddy Landau]

The default mount option for Ubuntu is relatime. However, for most purposes these days, noatime is preferred, especially for SSDs or where disk speed is critical.

Is it possible to change the default mount to noatime, which of course could be overridden where necessary? At present, I have to manually specify it for items not in /etc/fstab, e.g. external USB drives, which means that I don't use automatic mounting methods such as Disks (gnome-disks).

I'll probably never need or want to use relatime.

I've been searching on the 'net, and so far the only solution that I've found is to change the code in the kernel and recompile it! That is unsuitable for someone like me, not only because I wouldn't know where to start, but also because I'd have to do it every time the kernel is updated.

[TheFu]

I'd use a devops tool that is omnipotent and have it force any options I wanted into the fstab, autofs files and any systemd-mount-unit files. The "defaults" for mounts is set by the build options for mount, I'd think. Of course, if you change the defaults in the source code, then you'll have to maintain those going forward. I'd use ansible, if this was really bothersome. Since I generally touch the fstab just a few times over the life of most systems, I don't find setting mount options too cumbersome. They are part of my system-setup checklist.

[Paddy Landau]

I'd use a devops tool that is omnipotent and have it force any options I wanted into the fstab, autofs files and any systemd-mount-unit files.

That's an interesting concept, but how specifically would one do this? Can it be done reasonably simply, or would it be a complex procedure?

The "defaults" for mounts is set by the build options for mount, I'd think. Of course, if you change the defaults in the source code, then you'll have to maintain those going forward.

That's what I expected, but I was hoping wouldn't be the case!

I'd use ansible, if this was really bothersome.

I'm unfamiliar with Ansible. It looks like an organisation-wide automation tool rather than something that I'd use on a desktop. Am I right?

Since I generally touch the fstab just a few times over the life of most systems, I don't find setting mount options too cumbersome. They are part of my system-setup checklist.

I've actually written a script to mount my most popular devices automatically with noatime.

… And, as I write this, I have just realised that I can place them in /etc/fstab using the UUID to identify the partitions. Damn, in hindsight, that is the obvious way for my frequent devices!

[TheFu]

That's an interesting concept, but how specifically would one do this? Can it be done reasonably simply, or would it be a complex procedure?

Learning to use ansible is about 15 minutes for simple things like modifying lines in 1 system file.

I'm unfamiliar with Ansible. It looks like an organisation-wide automation tool rather than something that I'd use on a desktop. Am I right?

For 1 systems, devops tools are overkill, but for 5 systems, they start making sense. For 50,000 systems, there's no other choice. I do use Ansible to manage single systems, but I started out having it manage the /etc/hosts files on all my systems as my first goal. That uses a template, since the /etc/hosts file for each system is slightly different. There is a templating replacement language - Jinga2 - I think that's the name. {{parameter}} and as long as the parameter is specified in the ansible playbook for the system, it will be replaced with the value.

I've actually written a script to mount my most popular devices automatically with noatime.

Why? That seems like the hard way.

… And, as I write this, I have just realised that I can place them in /etc/fstab using the UUID to identify the partitions. Damn, in hindsight, that is the obvious way for my frequent devices!

UUIDs are fine for computers. Humans are better served using LABELs (partition or file system) or if you use LVM, the /dev/{vgname}/{lvname} provides clear information about a mount device/file system, unlike a label or UUID.

Just ensure that the LABEL is unique.

[Paddy Landau]

Thanks for all the information!

Humans are better served using LABELs

… And that's my second facepalm moment today, ha ha! Yes, you are absolutely correct! Thank you.