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

NAME

       automount - manage autofs mount points

SYNOPSIS

       automount [options] [master_map]

DESCRIPTION

       The  automount  program	is  used  to  manage  mount  points  for  autofs,  the	inlined Linux automounter.  automount works by reading the
       auto.master(5) map and sets up mount points for each entry in the master map allowing them to be automatically mounted when  accessed.  The
       file systems are then automatically umounted after a period of inactivity.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
	      Print brief help on program usage.

       -p, --pid-file
	      Write the pid of the daemon to the specified file.

       -t, --timeout
	      Set  the global minimum timeout, in seconds, until directories are unmounted. The default is 10 minutes. Setting the timeout to zero
	      disables umounts completely.

       -n <seconds>, --negative-timeout <seconds>
	      Set the default timeout for caching failed key lookups. The default is 60 seconds.

       -v, --verbose
	      Enables logging of general status and progress messages for all autofs managed mounts.

       -d, --debug
	      Enables logging of general status and progress messages as well as debuging messages for all autofs managed mounts.

       -Dvariable=value
	      Define a global macro substitution variable. Global definitions are over-ridden macro definitions of  the  same  name  specified	in
	      mount entries.

       -f, --foreground
	      Run the daemon in the foreground and log to stderr instead of syslog."

       -r, --random-multimount-selection
	      Enables the use of ramdom selection when choosing a host from a list of replicated servers.

       -m, --dumpmaps
	      Dump configured automounter maps, then exit.

       -O, --global-options
	      Allows the specification of global mount options used for all master map entries. These options will either replace or be appened to
	      options given in a master map entry depending on the APPEND_OPTIONS configuration setting.

       -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 numbers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert,  crit,  err,
	      warning,	notice, info, or debug. Log level debug will log everything, log levels info, warn (or warning), or notice with enable the
	      daemon verbose logging. Any other level will set basic logging. Note that enabling debug or verbose logging  in  the  autofs  global
	      configuration  will  override dynamic log level changes. For example, if verbose logging is set in the configuration then attempting
	      to set logging to basic logging, by using alert, crit, err or emerg won't stop the verbose logging. However, setting logging to  de-
	      bug  will  lead to everything (debug logging) being logged witch can then also be disabled, returning the daemon to verbose logging.
	      This option can be specified to change the logging priority of an already running automount process.

       The path argument corresponds to the automounted path name as specified in the master map.

       -C, --dont-check-daemon
	      Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).

       -F, --force
	      Force an unlink umount of existing mounts under autofs managed mount points during startup. This can cause  problems  for  processes
	      with working directories within these mounts (see NOTES).

ARGUMENTS

       automount takes one optional argument, the name of the master map to use.

       master_map
	      Location	for  autofs  master  map  that	defines  autofs  managed  mount  points  and  the mount maps they will use. The default is
	      auto.master.

NOTES

       If the automount daemon catches a USR1 signal, it will umount all currently unused autofs managed mounted file systems and continue running
       (forced	expire).  If it catches the TERM signal it will umount all unused autofs managed mounted file systems and exit if there are no re-
       maining busy file systems. If autofs has been compiled with the option to ignore busy mounts on exit it will exit leaving any  busy  mounts
       in  place  otherwise  busy file systems will not be umounted and autofs will not exit.  Alternatively, if autofs has been compiled with the
       option to enable forced shutdown then a USR2 signal to the daemon will cause all mounts to be umounted and any busy mounts to  be  forcibly
       umounted,  including  autofs mount point directories (summary execution). Note that the forced umount is an unlink operation and the actual
       umount will not happen in the kernel until active file handles are released.  The daemon also responds to a HUP signal  which  triggers	an
       update of the maps for each mount point.

       If any autofs mount point directories are busy when the daemon is sent an exit signal the daemon will not exit. The exception to this is if
       autofs has been built with configure options to either ignore busy mounts at exit or force umount at exit. If the ignore busy mounts at ex-
       it  option is used the filesystems will be left in a catatonic (non-functional) state and can be manually umounted when they become unused.
       If the force umount at exit option is used the filesystems will be umounted but the mount will not be released by the kernel until they are
       no longer in use by the processes that held them busy.  If automount managed filesystems are found mounted when autofs is started they will
       be recoverd unless they are no longer present in the map in which case they need to umounted manually.

       If the option to disable the check to see if the daemon is already running is used be aware that autofs currently may not function correct-
       ly  for	certain  types of automount maps. The mounts of the separate daemons might interfere with one another. The implications of running
       multiple daemon instances needs to be checked and tested before we can say this is supported.

       If the option to force an unlink of mounts at startup is used then processes whose working directory is within unlinked automounted  direc-
       tories  will not get the correct pwd from the system. This is because, after the mount is unlinked from the mount tree, anything that needs
       to walk back up the mount tree to construct a path, such as getcwd(2) and the proc filesystem  /proc/<pid>/cwd,	cannot	work  because  the
       point from which the path is constructed has been detached from the mount tree.

SEE ALSO

       autofs(5), autofs(8), auto.master(5), mount(8).	autofs_ldap_auth.conf(5)

BUGS

       Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.

       The documentation could be better.

       Please  report  other bugs along with a detailed description to <autofs@linux.kernel.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@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.

								    12 Apr 2006 						      AUTOMOUNT(8)