xfree86 exports man page on unix.com

exports(5) File Formats Manual exports(5)

NAME
exports - NFS server export table

DESCRIPTION
The file /etc/exports contains a table of local physical file systems on an NFS server that are accessible to NFS clients. The contents of
the file are maintained by the server's system administrator.

Each file system in this table has a list of options and an access control list. The table is used by exportfs(8) to give information to
mountd(8).

The file format is similar to the SunOS exports file. Each line contains an export point and a whitespace-separated list of clients allowed
to mount the file system at that point. Each listed client may be immediately followed by a parenthesized, comma-separated list of export
options for that client. No whitespace is permitted between a client and its option list.

Also, each line may have one or more specifications for default options after the path name, in the form of a dash ("-") followed by an
option list. The option list is used for all subsequent exports on that line only.

Blank lines are ignored. A pound sign ("#") introduces a comment to the end of the line. Entries may be continued across newlines using a
backslash. If an export name contains spaces it should be quoted using double quotes. You can also specify spaces or other unusual charac-
ter in the export name using a backslash followed by the character code as three octal digits.

To apply changes to this file, run exportfs-ra or restart the NFS server.

Machine Name Formats
NFS clients may be specified in a number of ways:

single host
You may specify a host either by an abbreviated name recognized be the resolver, the fully qualified domain name, an IPv4 address,
or an IPv6 address. IPv6 addresses must not be inside square brackets in /etc/exports lest they be confused with character-class
wildcard matches.

IP networks
You can also export directories to all hosts on an IP (sub-) network simultaneously. This is done by specifying an IP address and
netmask pair as address/netmask where the netmask can be specified in dotted-decimal format, or as a contiguous mask length. For
example, either `/255.255.252.0' or `/22' appended to the network base IPv4 address results in identical subnetworks with 10 bits of
host. IPv6 addresses must use a contiguous mask length and must not be inside square brackets to avoid confusion with character-
class wildcards. Wildcard characters generally do not work on IP addresses, though they may work by accident when reverse DNS
lookups fail.

wildcards
Machine names may contain the wildcard characters * and ?, or may contain character class lists within [square brackets]. This can
be used to make the exports file more compact; for instance, *.cs.foo.edu matches all hosts in the domain cs.foo.edu. As these
characters also match the dots in a domain name, the given pattern will also match all hosts within any subdomain of cs.foo.edu.

netgroups
NIS netgroups may be given as @group. Only the host part of each netgroup members is consider in checking for membership. Empty
host parts or those containing a single dash (-) are ignored.

anonymous
This is specified by a single * character (not to be confused with the wildcard entry above) and will match all clients.

If a client matches more than one of the specifications above, then the first match from the above list order takes precedence - regardless
of the order they appear on the export line. However, if a client matches more than one of the same type of specification (e.g. two net-
groups), then the first match from the order they appear on the export line takes precedence.

RPCSEC_GSS security
You may use the special strings "gss/krb5", "gss/krb5i", or "gss/krb5p" to restrict access to clients using rpcsec_gss security. However,
this syntax is deprecated; on linux kernels since 2.6.23, you should instead use the "sec=" export option:

sec= The sec= option, followed by a colon-delimited list of security flavors, restricts the export to clients using those flavors.
Available security flavors include sys (the default--no cryptographic security), krb5 (authentication only), krb5i (integrity pro-
tection), and krb5p (privacy protection). For the purposes of security flavor negotiation, order counts: preferred flavors should
be listed first. The order of the sec= option with respect to the other options does not matter, unless you want some options to be
enforced differently depending on flavor. In that case you may include multiple sec= options, and following options will be
enforced only for access using flavors listed in the immediately preceding sec= option. The only options that are permitted to vary
in this way are ro, rw, no_root_squash, root_squash, and all_squash.

General Options
exportfs understands the following export options:

secure This option requires that requests originate on an Internet port less than IPPORT_RESERVED (1024). This option is on by default. To
turn it off, specify insecure.

rw Allow both read and write requests on this NFS volume. The default is to disallow any request which changes the filesystem. This
can also be made explicit by using the ro option.

async This option allows the NFS server to violate the NFS protocol and reply to requests before any changes made by that request have
been committed to stable storage (e.g. disc drive).

Using this option usually improves performance, but at the cost that an unclean server restart (i.e. a crash) can cause data to be
lost or corrupted.

sync Reply to requests only after the changes have been committed to stable storage (see async above).

In releases of nfs-utils up to and including 1.0.0, the async option was the default. In all releases after 1.0.0, sync is the
default, and async must be explicitly requested if needed. To help make system administrators aware of this change, exportfs will
issue a warning if neither sync nor async is specified.

no_wdelay
This option has no effect if async is also set. The NFS server will normally delay committing a write request to disc slightly if
it suspects that another related write request may be in progress or may arrive soon. This allows multiple write requests to be
committed to disc with the one operation which can improve performance. If an NFS server received mainly small unrelated requests,
this behaviour could actually reduce performance, so no_wdelay is available to turn it off. The default can be explicitly requested
with the wdelay option.

nohide This option is based on the option of the same name provided in IRIX NFS. Normally, if a server exports two filesystems one of
which is mounted on the other, then the client will have to mount both filesystems explicitly to get access to them. If it just
mounts the parent, it will see an empty directory at the place where the other filesystem is mounted. That filesystem is "hidden".

Setting the nohide option on a filesystem causes it not to be hidden, and an appropriately authorised client will be able to move
from the parent to that filesystem without noticing the change.

However, some NFS clients do not cope well with this situation as, for instance, it is then possible for two files in the one appar-
ent filesystem to have the same inode number.

The nohide option is currently only effective on single host exports. It does not work reliably with netgroup, subnet, or wildcard
exports.

This option can be very useful in some situations, but it should be used with due care, and only after confirming that the client
system copes with the situation effectively.

The option can be explicitly disabled with hide.

crossmnt
This option is similar to nohide but it makes it possible for clients to move from the filesystem marked with crossmnt to exported
filesystems mounted on it. Thus when a child filesystem "B" is mounted on a parent "A", setting crossmnt on "A" has the same effect
as setting "nohide" on B.

no_subtree_check
This option disables subtree checking, which has mild security implications, but can improve reliability in some circumstances.

If a subdirectory of a filesystem is exported, but the whole filesystem isn't then whenever a NFS request arrives, the server must
check not only that the accessed file is in the appropriate filesystem (which is easy) but also that it is in the exported tree
(which is harder). This check is called the subtree_check.

In order to perform this check, the server must include some information about the location of the file in the "filehandle" that is
given to the client. This can cause problems with accessing files that are renamed while a client has them open (though in many
simple cases it will still work).

subtree checking is also used to make sure that files inside directories to which only root has access can only be accessed if the
filesystem is exported with no_root_squash (see below), even if the file itself allows more general access.

As a general guide, a home directory filesystem, which is normally exported at the root and may see lots of file renames, should be
exported with subtree checking disabled. A filesystem which is mostly readonly, and at least doesn't see many file renames (e.g.
/usr or /var) and for which subdirectories may be exported, should probably be exported with subtree checks enabled.

The default of having subtree checks enabled, can be explicitly requested with subtree_check.

From release 1.1.0 of nfs-utils onwards, the default will be no_subtree_check as subtree_checking tends to cause more problems than
it is worth. If you genuinely require subtree checking, you should explicitly put that option in the exports file. If you put nei-
ther option, exportfs will warn you that the change is pending.

insecure_locks

no_auth_nlm
This option (the two names are synonymous) tells the NFS server not to require authentication of locking requests (i.e. requests
which use the NLM protocol). Normally the NFS server will require a lock request to hold a credential for a user who has read
access to the file. With this flag no access checks will be performed.

Early NFS client implementations did not send credentials with lock requests, and many current NFS clients still exist which are
based on the old implementations. Use this flag if you find that you can only lock files which are world readable.

The default behaviour of requiring authentication for NLM requests can be explicitly requested with either of the synonymous
auth_nlm, or secure_locks.

mountpoint=path

mp This option makes it possible to only export a directory if it has successfully been mounted. If no path is given (e.g. mountpoint
or mp) then the export point must also be a mount point. If it isn't then the export point is not exported. This allows you to be
sure that the directory underneath a mountpoint will never be exported by accident if, for example, the filesystem failed to mount
due to a disc error.

If a path is given (e.g. mountpoint=/path or mp=/path) then the nominated path must be a mountpoint for the exportpoint to be
exported.

fsid=num|root|uuid
NFS needs to be able to identify each filesystem that it exports. Normally it will use a UUID for the filesystem (if the filesystem
has such a thing) or the device number of the device holding the filesystem (if the filesystem is stored on the device).

As not all filesystems are stored on devices, and not all filesystems have UUIDs, it is sometimes necessary to explicitly tell NFS
how to identify a filesystem. This is done with the fsid= option.

For NFSv4, there is a distinguished filesystem which is the root of all exported filesystem. This is specified with fsid=root or
fsid=0 both of which mean exactly the same thing.

Other filesystems can be identified with a small integer, or a UUID which should contain 32 hex digits and arbitrary punctuation.

Linux kernels version 2.6.20 and earlier do not understand the UUID setting so a small integer must be used if an fsid option needs
to be set for such kernels. Setting both a small number and a UUID is supported so the same configuration can be made to work on
old and new kernels alike.

refer=path@host[+host][:path@host[+host]]
A client referencing the export point will be directed to choose from the given list an alternative location for the filesystem.
(Note that the server must have a mountpoint here, though a different filesystem is not required; so, for example, mount --bind
/path /path is sufficient.)

replicas=path@host[+host][:path@host[+host]]
If the client asks for alternative locations for the export point, it will be given this list of alternatives. (Note that actual
replication of the filesystem must be handled elsewhere.)

User ID Mapping
nfsd bases its access control to files on the server machine on the uid and gid provided in each NFS RPC request. The normal behavior a
user would expect is that she can access her files on the server just as she would on a normal file system. This requires that the same
uids and gids are used on the client and the server machine. This is not always true, nor is it always desirable.

Very often, it is not desirable that the root user on a client machine is also treated as root when accessing files on the NFS server. To
this end, uid 0 is normally mapped to a different id: the so-called anonymous or nobody uid. This mode of operation (called `root squash-
ing') is the default, and can be turned off with no_root_squash.

By default, exportfs chooses a uid and gid of 65534 for squashed access. These values can also be overridden by the anonuid and anongid
options. Finally, you can map all user requests to the anonymous uid by specifying the all_squash option.

Here's the complete list of mapping options:

root_squash
Map requests from uid/gid 0 to the anonymous uid/gid. Note that this does not apply to any other uids or gids that might be equally
sensitive, such as user bin or group staff.

no_root_squash
Turn off root squashing. This option is mainly useful for diskless clients.

all_squash
Map all uids and gids to the anonymous user. Useful for NFS-exported public FTP directories, news spool directories, etc. The oppo-
site option is no_all_squash, which is the default setting.

anonuid and anongid
These options explicitly set the uid and gid of the anonymous account. This option is primarily useful for PC/NFS clients, where
you might want all requests appear to be from one user. As an example, consider the export entry for /home/joe in the example sec-
tion below, which maps all requests to uid 150 (which is supposedly that of user joe).

Extra Export Tables
After reading /etc/exports exportfs reads files under /etc/exports.d. directory as extra export tables. exportfs regards only a file
which name is ended with .exports and not started with . as an extra export file. A file which name is not met this condition is just
ignored. The format for extra export tables is the same as /etc/exports

EXAMPLE
# sample /etc/exports file
/ master(rw) trusty(rw,no_root_squash)
/projects proj*.local.domain(rw)
/usr *.local.domain(ro) @trusted(rw)
/home/joe pc001(rw,all_squash,anonuid=150,anongid=100)
/pub *(ro,insecure,all_squash)
/srv/www -sync,rw server @trusted @external(ro)
/foo 2001:db8:9:e54::/64(rw) 192.0.2.0/24(rw)
/build buildhost[0-9].local.domain(rw)

The first line exports the entire filesystem to machines master and trusty. In addition to write access, all uid squashing is turned off
for host trusty. The second and third entry show examples for wildcard hostnames and netgroups (this is the entry `@trusted'). The fourth
line shows the entry for the PC/NFS client discussed above. Line 5 exports the public FTP directory to every host in the world, executing
all requests under the nobody account. The insecure option in this entry also allows clients with NFS implementations that don't use a
reserved port for NFS. The sixth line exports a directory read-write to the machine 'server' as well as the `@trusted' netgroup, and read-
only to netgroup `@external', all three mounts with the `sync' option enabled. The seventh line exports a directory to both an IPv6 and an
IPv4 subnet. The eighth line demonstrates a character class wildcard match.

FILES
/etc/exports /etc/exports.d

SEE ALSO
exportfs(8), netgroup(5), mountd(8), nfsd(8), showmount(8).

31 December 2009 exports(5)

xfree86 man page for exports