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AUTOMOUNT(8) AUTOMOUNT(8)
NAME
automount - configure mount points for autofs
SYNOPSIS
automount [options] mount-point map-type[,format] map [map-options]
DESCRIPTION
The automount program is used to configure a mount point for autofs,
the inlined Linux automounter. automount works by taking a base
mount-point and map file, and using these (combined with other
options) to automatically mount filesystems within the base mount-
point when they are accessed in any way. The filesystems are then
autounmounted after a period of inactivity.
OPTIONS
-p, --pid-file
Write the pid of the daemon to the specified file.
-t, --timeout
Set the minimum timeout, in seconds, until directories are
unmounted. The default is 5 minutes. Setting the timeout to
zero disables unmounts completely.
-v, --verbose
Enables printing of general status and progress messages.
-d, --debug
Enables printing of general status and progress messages as
well as debuging messages.
-g, --ghost
Request that directories in the automount be shown but not
mounted until accesssed. The wildcard map is not ghosted.
-V, --version
Display the version number, then exit.
ARGUMENTS
automount takes at least three arguments. Mandatory arguments include
mount-point, map-type and map. Both mandatory and optional arguments
are described below.
mount-point
Base location for autofs-mounted filesystems to be attached.
This is a directory name which must already exist.
map-type
Type of map used for this invocation of automount. The follow-
ing are valid map types:
file The map is a regular text file.
program
The map is an executable program, which is passed a key
on the command line and returns an entry on stdout if
successful.
yp The map is a NIS (YP) database.
nisplus
The map is a NIS+ database.
hesiod The map is a hesiod database whose filsys entries are
used for maps.
ldap map names are of the form [//servername/]basedn, where
the optional servername is the name of the LDAP server
to query, and basedn is the DN to do a subtree search
under. Two LDAP schema are supported. The i automountMap
and the nisMap (RFC 2307) object classes.
Entries in the automountMap schema are automount objects in the
specified subtree, where the cn attribute is the key (the wild-
card key is "/"), and the automountInformation attribute con-
tains the information used by the automounter. Documentation
on the schema used by this module is available online at
http://docs.sun.com/source/806-4251-10/mapping.htm.
RFC 2307 schema entries are nisObject objects and use the cn
attribute as the key and the nisMapEntry contains information
used by the automounter.
format Format of the map data; currently the only formats
recognized are sun, which is a subset of the Sun automounter
map format, and hesiod, for hesiod filesys entries. If the
format is left unspecified, it defaults to sun for all map
types except hesiod.
map Location of mapfile to use. This is an absolute UNIX pathname
in the case for maps of types file or program, and the name of
a database in the case for maps of type yp, nisplus, or hesiod.
options
Any remaining command line arguments without leading dashes (-)
are taken as options (-o) to mount. Arguments with leading
dashes are considered options for the maps.
The sun format supports the following options:
-Dvariable=value
Replace variable with value in map substitutions.
-strict
Treat errors when mounting file systems as fatal. This
is important when multiple file systems should be
mounted ('multimounts'). If this option is given, no
file system is mounted at all if at least one file sys-
tem can't be mounted.
NOTES
If the automount daemon catches signal USR1, it will unmount all cur-
rently unused autofs-mounted filesystems and continue running (forced
expire). If it catches signals TERM or USR2 it will unmount all
unused autofs-mounted filesystems and exit if all filesystems were
unmounted. Busy filesystems will not be unmounted. The daemon also
responds to a HUP signal which triggers an update of maps for which
ghosting is implemented (currently FILE and NIS maps).
If the autofs directory itself is busy when the daemon is signalled
with an exit signal then the daemon will exit without unmounting the
autofs filesystem. The filesystem is left in a catatonic (non-func-
tional) state, and can be unmounted when it becomes unused.
SEE ALSO
autofs(5), mount(8).
BUGS
A whole slew of missing desirable features (see TODO file).
The documentation leaves a lot to be desired.
Please report other bugs along with a detailed description to . To join this mailing list, send a message with
the line "subscribe autofs" to .
AUTHOR
H. Peter Anvin
14 Jan 2000 AUTOMOUNT(8)
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