Where can I find a description of file system mount options in Linux?

Question

Is there some file in Linux that enumerates and describes mount options for file systems like /etc/services describes ports?

Answer 1

If you're asking for "Which filesystems are mounted, and how are they mounted?", the answer can be found by either reading /proc/mounts or running 'mount'.

If you're asking which mount options you have available for the different file systems, you need to check the man page for mount (mount(8)) - it has one section titled "FILESYSTEM SPECIFIC MOUNT OPTIONS", and one titled "FILESYSTEM INDEPENDENT MOUNT OPTIONS" which should give you a pretty good idea of what mount options are available and what they do.

Answer 2

There is no machine-parsable file like /etc/services, as far as I know.

The most accessible human-readable documentation is the man page for the mount command.

Sometimes though the mount command is not completely up-to-date, there can be options that the kernel supports but not mount. The options supported by the kernel are documented in its documentation under Documentation/filesystems/. Options not supported by the mount command are typically experimental and best left alone in any case; but they sometimes appear in /proc/mounts when they are the names of options that are enabled by default and best not turned off.