e2label /dev/hdb1 pubsw

tune2fs -L pubsw /dev/hdb1

Either of thse two commands will label the first partition of the second drive "pubsw". That label stays with that particular partition, even if the drive is moved to another controller or even another computer.

mke2fs pubsw /dev/hdb1

mke2fs -L pubsw /dev/hdb1

will do the same thing as the first two commands - after they make the file system. This means that either of these last two commands will delete any existing data in the partition.

Here is a sample fstab. This is a text file located in /etc, which is usually set up during the installation of the operating system. it describes where each partition wil be mounted, and how it will be mounted. It can be modified by you, either through a utility or manually, when you add/remove devices.

LABEL=/        /                    ext3    defaults        1 1
LABEL=/boot    /boot                ext2    defaults        1 2
none           /dev/pts             devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
none           /dev/shm             tmpfs   defaults        0 0
LABEL=HOME     /home                ext3    defaults        1 2
none           /proc                proc    defaults        0 0
none           /sys                 sysfs   defaults        0 0
LABEL=/usr     /usr                 ext3    defaults        1 2
/dev/hdc1      /k-space             ext3    defaults        1 2
/dev/hda6      swap                 swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/hdd       /media/cdrecorder    auto    pamconsole,ro,exec,noauto,managed 0 0
/dev/fd0       /media/floppy        auto    pamconsole,exec,noauto,managed 0 0

The leftmost column lists devices and the second column lists mount points. This example contains a mixture of devices and labels. The master drive of the second controller is always mounted on /k-space. The partition labeled "HOME" is always mounted on /home, regardless of which drive it is on or which partition number it has. Notice that it is permissible to use mount points as labels, such as "/usr"