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A mount point /mnt/sub is shadowed by another mount point /mnt. Is it always possible to access the mounted filesystem?

Root access is a given. The system is a reasonably recent Linux.

Example scenario: accessing the branches of an overlay root

The basic sequence of operations is:

mount device1 /mnt/sub mount device2 /mnt

After this /mnt/sub is a file on device2 (if it exists). The question is how to access files on device1.

Some devices can be mounted twice, so mount device1 /elsewhere would work. But this doesn't work for all devices, in particular not for FUSE filesystems.

This differs from the already covered case where a subdirectory is shadowed by a mount point, but the mount point of the subdirectory is itself visible, and a bind mount can create an unobscured view. In the example above, mount --bind / /elsewhere lets us see the /mnt/sub directory from the root filesystem on /elsewhere/mnt/sub, but this question is about accessing the filesystem on device1.

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    A quick test shows the shadowed directory is accessible using /proc/PID/cwd for a process that was running in it before the shadowing mount. That won't do, I guess? Commented May 11, 2016 at 1:06
  • @muru That only works if the directory was the current directory of some process. It doesn't work in general for the scenario that inspired this question, which was accessing a branch of an overlay filesystem that was mounted on /. Commented May 11, 2016 at 7:27
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    Depending on how early it happened, wouldn't init's CWD still be in the old / in that scenario? It wouldn't work in general since there's no way to make sure a process is started in the old mount point, but with /, init is a good candidate, hopefully? Commented May 11, 2016 at 7:41
  • @muru Not if the branch is a separate filesystem rather than a part of the root filesystem. Commented May 11, 2016 at 7:44

3 Answers 3

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# unshare --mount # this opens a sub-shell # cd / # umount /mnt

do what thou wilt

# exit # close the sub-shell
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This probably comes too late, but the way I normally do this is:

  • mount the original device again on a different directory
  • the new directory now only contains the original device's folders, and not any submounts.
  • this does not depend on mount order, kernel namespace support, etc!
  • does not require you to touch / move the current mount (which may be used by your services)

Here's how this would work for your root device, for example:

mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv /mnt cd /mnt # this folder only contains files from the root device

In your example:

# your actual (untouched) work dirs mount device1 /mnt/sub mount device2 /mnt # access /mnt/sub contents in another dir by remounting it there mount device1 /mnt/tmp cd /mnt/tmp # any operations here apply solely to device1
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The files living on device1 under /mnt/sub are not accessible through that path at all. Remount the device elsewhere, or make sure that the two devices are mounted in the opposite order.

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