How to mount CD or DVD (iso) images in Linux

Mount CD or DVD (iso) images in Linux

If you download a CD or DVD image from the Internet and you want to see what it contains, you can do so without burning it to CD or DVD. You can do this by mounting the iso file to a directory. You have to create a mount point and use the the -o loop option to mount it locally.

Here is an example of what to type at the Terminal as root:

# mkdir /mnt/mycdimage
# mount -o loop name_of_image.iso /mnt/mycdimage

In the above example, the disk image file residing in the current directory is mounted on the /mnt/mycdimage directory.

Once mounted, you can cd to the directory and view the contents and copy the files to other directories. This is useful for downloaded CD images that you want to install software from without having to burn the CD image.

When you are done, just type:

# umount /mnt/mycdimage

and it will get unmounted.

Note: Other options to mount are available only for a specific file system type. See the mount manual page for those and other useful options. To view the manual for mount, type:

# man mount

and the man page will open up.