kdb spec-mount [/<mountpoint>] [<plugin> [<config>] [..]]

mountpoint is where in the key database the new backend should be mounted to. It must be a cascading mount point, i.e., mountpoint must start with /.
plugin are extra Elektra plugins to be used (next to the one specified in spec:/<mountpoint>).
Plugins may be followed by a , separated list of keys=values pairs which will be used as plugin configuration.

kdb smount is an alias and can be used in the same way as kdb spec-mount.

This command allows a user to mount a new backend described by a previously mounted specification. To mount a specification file to spec-namespace first use kdb-mount(7):

sudo kdb mount /path/to/some-spec-file.ini spec:/example/mountpoint ni

The idea of mounting is explained in elektra-mounting(7). The spec namespace contains metaconfiguration that describes the configuration in all other namespaces. The metadata used for the specification is described in METADATA.ini.

During spec-mount the spec keys are searched for relevant metadata:

For every metadata mountpoint an additional cascading mount point will be mounted. The metadata mountpoint is usually at the parent key (the top-level key of the specification).
The infos/* and config/needs from CONTRACT.ini, that are tagged by usedby = spec, will work as described there.
For other metadata suitable plugins are searched and mounted additionally.

For example:

kdb meta-get spec:/example/mountpoint mountpoint  # verify that we have a mountpoint here
sudo kdb spec-mount /example/mountpoint  # mounts /example/mountpoint according to
                                         # the specification as found at
                                         # spec:/example/mountpoint

This command writes into the /etc directory and as such it requires root permissions. Use kdb file system:/elektra/mountpoints to find out where exactly it will write to.

Note that many specifications have globs like _ and #. They will only work if the spec plugin is present:

kdb global-mount

-H, --help: Show the man page.
-V, --version: Print version info.
-p, --profile <profile>: Use a different kdb profile.
-C, --color <when>: Print never/auto(default)/always colored output.
-v, --verbose: Explain what is happening.
-q, --quiet: Suppress non-error messages.
-R, --resolver <resolver>: Specify the resolver plugin to use if no resolver is given, the default resolver is used. See also below in KDB. Note that the resolver will only added as dependency, but not directly added.
-c, --plugins-config <plugins-config>: Add a plugin configuration for all plugins.
-W, --with-recommends: Also add recommended plugins and warn if they are not available.

/sw/elektra/kdb/#0/current/verbose: Same as -v: Explain what is happening.
/sw/elektra/kdb/#0/current/quiet: Same as -q: Suppress default messages.
/sw/elektra/kdb/#0/current/resolver: The resolver that will be added automatically, if -R is not given.
/sw/elektra/kdb/#0/current/plugins: It contains a space-separated list of plugins and their configs which are added automatically (by default sync). The plugin-configuration syntax is as described above in the synopsis.

To mount /example as described in spec:/example:
sudo kdb spec-mount /example

Additionally, add ini plugin (instead of some default resolver) with a config for INI:
sudo kdb spec-mount /example ini section=NULL