mjhjmtu

I have 2 files: /MyDir/a and /MyDir/MySubDir/b and am running a bash script, to which I want to add code to make file /a point to file /b, but only in the current process and its descendants.

In hopes of making /MyDir/a point to /MyDir/MySubDir/b in the context of only the current process (not including its descendants, yet) I tried to first make the current process run in its own mount namespace by running a small C program in my script that performs

unshare(CLONE_NEWNS)

and then

mount --bind /MyDir/MySubDir/b /MyDir/a.

Unfortunately, this didn't work as I expected since the mount was still visible by other processes, despite the system call reporting success.

In another attempt, I tried to make the mount from the C code by calling

mount("/MyDir/a", "/MyDir/MySubDir/b", "ext3", MS_BIND, null)

But this didn't work as the mount didn't take effect at all (despite the call reporting success).

Is there a way of making /MyDir/a point to /MyDir/MySubDir/b in the context of only the current process and its descendants using a bash script?

I also read a little about chroot, but this applies only to the / directory...
Is there anything similar to chroot that applies only to a particular subdirectory?

Thanks for your time!

A shell-only solution would be:

For interactive shell:

# unshare --mount
# mount --bind /MyDir/MySubDir/b /MyDir/a
# 

non-interactively, before a script that doesn't have to know about these settings:

# unshare --mount sh -c 'mount --bind /MyDir/MySubDir/b /MyDir/a; exec somethingelse'

The unshare manpage also warns about shared subtree mounts . If you have to disable them, consider adding for example --make-private to mount.

As Hauke told, you have to be sure to not leave the namespace just after having created it, because it will disappear.

If needed there's a method to maintain a namespace without process. Since it involves mount, it's just a bit more tricky for a mount namespace. Here's an interactive example for this:

shell1# unshare --mount
shell1# echo $$
12345
shell1#

shell2# : > /root/mntreference
shell2# mount --bind /proc/12345/ns/mnt /root/mntreference

Now as long as this reference is kept mounted, the namespace won't disappear even if there's no process using it anymore. Using nsenter --mount=/root/mntreference will enter it, so you can easily run additional scripts in it.

Using the equivalent in C shouldn't be a problem.

Unfortunately you still haven't explained how the C program and the script are related.

A possible (and here probable) reason for the problem is: You call the C program from the script but the namespace change is effective only within the C program (and possible children). After that program exists the situation is unchanged for all following commands.

You should start a shell from the C program by calling execve() for the intended shell.