unix - How do I mount a filesystem using Python?

Question

I'm sure this is a easy question, my Google-fu is obviously failing me.

How do I mount a filesystem using Python, the equivalent of running the shell command mount ...?

Obviously I can use os.system to run the shell command, but surely there is a nice tidy, Python interface to the mount system call.

I can't find it. I thought it would just be a nice, easy os.mount().

Answer 1

As others have pointed out, there is no built-in mount function. However, it is easy to create one using ctypes, and this is a bit lighter weight and more reliable than using a shell command.

Here's an example:

import ctypes
import ctypes.util
import os

libc = ctypes.CDLL(ctypes.util.find_library('c'), use_errno=True)
libc.mount.argtypes = (ctypes.c_char_p, ctypes.c_char_p, ctypes.c_char_p, ctypes.c_ulong, ctypes.c_char_p)

def mount(source, target, fs, options=''):
  ret = libc.mount(source.encode(), target.encode(), fs.encode(), 0, options.encode())
  if ret < 0:
    errno = ctypes.get_errno()
    raise OSError(errno, f"Error mounting {source} ({fs}) on {target} with options '{options}': {os.strerror(errno)}")

mount('/dev/sdb1', '/mnt', 'ext4', 'rw')