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If a filesystem in /etc/fstab has a noauto entry, can that filesystem only be mounted manually using the mount command or
is there any chance that it will be automatically mounted by
usbmount ?

The filesystem is used in a USB port.

The noauto option applies to booting up — it's to prevent the start-up trying to mount a device that hasn't been plugged in. It won't stop the device being mounted automatically when you do plug it in, as that's done independently.

Thanks, David.

After further investigation, I agree with what you say.

It now seems to me that the situation is as follows :-

Filesystems in /etc/fstab which have the noauto option are not automatically mounted at boot time, so if these filesystems are already
plugged into USB ports at boot time, they would subsequently have to be manually mounted in order to be used.

Filesystems which are plugged into a port after the system has been booted are automatically mounted.