3.11. /media : Mount point for removable media

3.11.1. Purpose

This directory contains subdirectories which are used as mount points for removable media such as floppy disks, cdroms and zip disks.

Rationale

Historically there have been a number of other different places used to mount removable media such as /cdrom, /mnt or /mnt/cdrom. Placing the mount points for all removable media directly in the root directory would potentially result in a large number of extra directories in /. Although the use of subdirectories in /mnt as a mount point has recently been common, it conflicts with a much older tradition of using /mnt directly as a temporary mount point.

3.11.2. Specific Options

The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, must be in /media, if the corresponding subsystem is installed:

DirectoryDescription
floppyFloppy drive (optional)
cdromCD-ROM drive (optional)
cdrecorderCD writer (optional)
zipZip drive (optional)

On systems where more than one device exists for mounting a certain type of media, mount directories can be created by appending a digit to the name of those available above starting with '0', but the unqualified name must also exist. [15]



[15] A compliant distribution with two CDROM drives might have /media/cdrom0 and /media/cdrom1 with /media/cdrom a symlink to either of these.