Understanding mounts

What are mounting points? Basically, mounting points are where you mount your file systems or devices. Example: If I wanted to mount my CD-ROM/DVD, I would login as root or super-user and type: mount /dev/sdx /mnt/cdrom”x”, where “x” is the device number. And /mnt/cdrom is a directory where the files will be exported.
Look at the following table for different mounted partition.

Mountpoint	Definition	What it holds
/	root	You can boot the system here or create a separate /boot partition
Swap	Swap	Temporary virtual memory
/usr	User	Store binaries, compiler libraries and user applications
/var	Variable	This partition must be large. It keeps the log, spools etc.
/home	Home	Home users' directory
/tmp	Temp	The system keeps temp files
/mnt	Mount	Temporary mounting points

Table 1.2

In Linux, mount points can be mounted permanently or temporarily. For security purposes, you should only Mount your devices under root's privileges.

Swap Partition: Use or Not to Use

In many cases you will appreciate the swap partition and other times the system won't need it at all. This only depends on the type of system you are setting up. Let say that you have plenty of RAM, say, 128MB+ and you are the sole user of the machine, you may not need it then. On the contrary if you are setting up a server machine then you definitely will need swap. Swap is where the virtual memory takes place. Check the system logs frequently to see if you ran out of virtual memory at any point. Even if you know that you don't need swap, I recommend you create one about double the size of your physical ram.


Courtesy: http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/manual1/mountpoints.html