autofsd(8)						      System Manager's Manual							autofsd(8)

NAME

       autofsd, autofs - Automatically and transparently mounts and unmounts NFS file systems

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/sbin/autofsd [-dv] [-D name=value]

OPTIONS

       Enables	debugging.  When  debugging is enabled, the daemon does not disassociate itself from the current tty.  Messages that trace autofsd
       activity are written to standard output.  Logs verbose output.  Defines an autofsd environment variable by assigning value to the variable.

DESCRIPTION

       The autofsd daemon automatically and transparently mounts and unmounts NFS file systems on an as-needed basis. Like the	automount  daemon,
       it  provides  another  alternative  to  using the /etc/fstab file for mounting NFS file systems on client machines. However, AutoFS is more
       efficient than the automount daemon because it requires less communication between the kernel and the user space daemon.

       The autofsd daemon also provides higher availability than the automount daemon. Although autofsd must be running for mounts or unmounts	to
       be performed, if it is killed or becomes unavailable, exisiting auto-mounted NFS file systems continue to be available.

       The  autofsd  daemon  can  be started from the command line or from the /sbin/rc3.d/nfs script, which reads the /etc/rc.config.common file.
       Once started, it remains dormant until a user attempts to access a directory (or any file or directory in the directory hierarchy) that	is
       associated with an AutoFS map.  The daemon then consults the appropriate map and mounts the NFS file system as specified.

       AutoFS maps indicate where to find the file system to be mounted and the mount options to use. The names of the maps are passed to the aut-
       ofsd daemon through the autofsmount command.  For more information about AutoFS maps and the autofsmount command,  see  autofsmount(8)  and
       the Network Administration guide. Also, see sys_attrs_autofs(5) for information on tuning AutoFS.

									  Note

       The  autofsmount program reads AutoFS maps at startup.  If you make any changes to the maps after startup, you must execute the autofsmount
       command again to incorporate the changes.

       By default, AutoFS uses UDP transport.  If the tcp option is specified in a map, AutoFS attempts to use TCP.  If TCP is not available, Aut-
       oFS then reverts to UDP.

RESTRICTIONS

       There is no support in the autofsd daemon that is analogous to the SIGTERM support in the automount command.

       If  a  file  system  is locally served, the autofsd daemon creates a symbolic link on the system instead of NFS mounting the directory.	If
       locally serving the directory would result in a circular link, the daemon selects an external server (if available).

SEE ALSO

       Commands: autofsmount(8), automount(8), mount(8)

       Others: sys_attrs_autofs(5)

       Network Administration

																	autofsd(8)