1

I’m trying to modify data under /var in recovery mode on my MacBook running Big Sur, but when I try to access /Volumes/Macintosh HD/var, it is a symlink to /Volumes/Macintosh HD/private/var, and /Volumes/Macintosh HD/private is an empty directory. (I guess it is unmounted.)

But since there is no fstab on mac, I couldn’t find what should be mounted there.

How can I mount it (if it is unmounted) or access /var ?

David Anderson
  • 40,244
tbrugere
  • 111
  • 1
  • 1
    Have you try with /Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data, after mount it if necessary? –  Jun 22 '21 at 16:04
  • 3
    Starting in Catalina, macOS splits the filesystem between two volumes, a read-only system volume and a read-write Data volume (see this). In normal operation, "firmlinks" are used to merge the two volumes together into the normal filesystem layout, but that's not active in Recovery Mode. You need to look specifically in the Data volume, in /Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/private/var. – Gordon Davisson Jun 22 '21 at 18:57
  • Yes that was it. My problem was that this volume wasnt mounted, and I had no idea how to do that. I was lookinig for a complex CLI solution. I felt a bit stupid when I found the disk utility. If you want to write an answer I'll accept it ^^ – tbrugere Jun 23 '21 at 08:05
  • what's a firmlink btw? something in the middle of a softlink and a hardlink? – tbrugere Jun 23 '21 at 08:07

0 Answers0