How to mount Linux folders into RAM using tmpfs

How to mount Linux Folders into RAM using TMPFS

When you are doing a lot of I/O operations on a set of files, you may wish to keep files in RAM to speed up everything.
Sometimes, you may wish to keep some files in RAM just because you don’t need to preserve them (e.g. temporary files).

If you ever had problems like these, maybe tmpfs can help you.

What is a TMPFS and how can we use it?

Tmpfs stands for Temporary File System.
To create files inside a tmpfs-mounted folder means that they will disappear when you shutdown your PC or unmount the folder.
How to create a tmpfs folder?

First, create a folder to use as a mount point.

mkdir [foldername]

Creation of a mount point

Then, transform it into a tmpfs folder.

sudo mount -t tmpfs -o size=[desiredSize] tmpfs [folderPath]

Mounting the folder as a tmpfs one

Now, we can check if everything is fine with df command.

df -lh

Checking the status of our brand new folder

We have created a folder mounted into RAM. Its size is 512MB, but it can be easily modified.

You can wish to mount a folder to RAM during boot.
To do so, we edit the /etc/fstab file. We need root access.

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Opening the /etc/fstab file

In the /etc/fstab file, just add the keyword tmpfs into the left column, write the mount point, tmpfs again, some options like defaults, noatime, size=512M. Zero and Zero for dump and pass will be fine.

The /etc/fstab file

If you are using nano, save the file using CTRL+O, then close the editor pressing CTRL+X.

Now you can reboot and enjoy your new tmpfs folders!