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.
--negative-timeout
Set the timeout for caching failed key lookups. The default is 60 seconds.
-v, --verbose
Enables printing of general status and progress messages.
-d, --debug
Enables printing of general status and progress messages as well as debuging mes-
sages.
-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.
-l, --set-log-priority priority path [path,...]
Set the daemon log priority to the specified value. Valid values include the num-
bers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, or debug.
The path argument corresponds to the automounted path name as specified in the mas-
ter map.
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 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 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 server-
name 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 wildcard key is "/"), and the automountIn-
formation attribute contains the information used by the automounter. Documenta-
tion 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 hes-
iod, 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 <>.
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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