automount - phpMan

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  com-
              pletely.

       -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 that will be created (as with mkdir -p) and later when auto-
              mount terminates will be removed (as with rmdir -p).

       map-type
              Type of map used for this invocation of automount.  The following 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 com-
                     mand 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
                     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 wildcard key is "/"), and
              the automountInformation attribute contains  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 system can’t be mounted.

NOTES
       If  the  automount daemon catches signal USR1, it will unmount all currently 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-functional) 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 <autofs AT linux.ker-
       nel.org>. For instructions  on  how  to  join  the  list  and  for  archives  visit
       http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs

AUTHOR
       H. Peter Anvin <hpa AT transmeta.com>


                                  14 Jan 2000                     AUTOMOUNT(8)