# phpman > man > fstab-decode(8)

[fstab-decode(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fstab-decode/8/markdown)                        System Manager's Manual                       [fstab-decode(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fstab-decode/8/markdown)



## NAME
       fstab-decode - run a command with fstab-encoded arguments


## SYNOPSIS
       **fstab-decode** _COMMAND_ [_ARGUMENT_ ...]


## DESCRIPTION
       **fstab-decode**  decodes escapes (such as newline characters and other whitespace) in the speci‐
       fied _ARGUMENT_s and uses them to run _COMMAND_.  The argument escaping uses the  same  rules  as
       path escaping in **/etc/fstab**, **/etc/mtab** and **/proc/mtab**.

       In  essence fstab-decode can be used anytime we want to pass multiple parameters to a command
       as a list of command line arguments. It turns output like this:

       /root
       /mnt/remote-disk
       /home

       Into one long list of parameters, "/root /mnt/remote-disk /home". This
       can be useful when trying to work with multiple filesystems at once. For
       instance, we can use it to unmount multiple NFS shares. This program also
       removes whitespace and other characters which might cause programs such
       as mount or umount to fail.


## EXIT STATUS
       **fstab-decode** exits with status 127 if _COMMAND_ can't be run.  Otherwise it exits with the sta‐
       tus returned by _COMMAND_.


## EXAMPLES
       The following example reads fstab, finds all instances of VFAT filesystems and
       prints their mount points (argument 2 in the fstab file). fstab-decode then runs
       the specified program, umount, and passes it the list of VFAT mountpoints.
       This unmounts all VFAT partitions.


### fstab-decode umount $(awk '$3 == "vfat" { print $2 }' /etc/fstab)


## SEE ALSO
       [**fstab**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fstab/5/markdown)



                                              May 2006                               [fstab-decode(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fstab-decode/8/markdown)