AUTOMOUNT(8) System Manager's Manual 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 dis-
ables unmounts completely.
-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 argu-
ments 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 servername is the name of the LDAP server to query, and
basedn is the DN to do a subtree search under. Entries are automount objects in the specified subtree, where the cn
attribute is the key (the wildcard key is "/"), and the automounterInformation attribute contains the information used by the
automounter. Documentation on the schema used by this module is available online at http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manu-
als/directory/411ext/nis/mapping.htm.
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.
NOTES
If the automount daemon catches signal USR1, it will unmount all currently unused autofs-mounted filesystems and continue running (forced
unmount.) If it catches signal USR2 it will unmount all unused autofs-mounted filesystems and exit if all filesystems were unmounted.
Busy filesystems will not be unmounted.
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@linux.kernel.org>. To join this mailing list, send a message with
the line "subscribe autofs" to <majordomo@linux.kernel.org>.
AUTHOR
H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com>
19 Jun 2000 AUTOMOUNT(8)