1AUTOMOUNT(8)                System Manager's Manual               AUTOMOUNT(8)
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NAME

6       automount - manage autofs mount points
7

SYNOPSIS

9       automount [options] [master_map]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       The  automount  program  is used to manage mount points for autofs, the
13       inlined  Linux   automounter.    automount   works   by   reading   the
14       auto.master(5)  map and sets up mount points for each entry in the mas‐
15       ter map allowing them to be automatically mounted  when  accessed.  The
16       file systems are then automatically umounted after a period of inactiv‐
17       ity.
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OPTIONS

20       -h, --help
21              Print brief help on program usage.
22
23       -p, --pid-file
24              Write the pid of the daemon to the specified file.
25
26       -t <seconds>, --timeout <seconds>
27              Set the global minimum timeout, in  seconds,  until  directories
28              are unmounted. The default is 10 minutes. Setting the timeout to
29              zero disables umounts completely.  The internal program  default
30              is 10 minutes, but the default installed configuration overrides
31              this and sets the timeout to 5 minutes  to  be  consistent  with
32              earlier autofs releases.
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34       -M <seconds>, --master-wait <seconds>
35              Set the maximum time to wait for the master map to become avail‐
36              able if it cannot be read at program start.
37
38       -n <seconds>, --negative-timeout <seconds>
39              Set the default timeout for caching failed key lookups. The  de‐
40              fault is 60 seconds.
41
42       -v, --verbose
43              Enables  logging of general status and progress messages for all
44              autofs managed mounts.
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46       -d, --debug
47              Enables logging of general status and progress messages as  well
48              as debuging messages for all autofs managed mounts.
49
50       -Dvariable=value
51              Define  a global macro substitution variable. Global definitions
52              are over-ridden macro definitions of the same name specified  in
53              mount entries.
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55       -f, --foreground
56              Run  the  daemon  in  the forground and log to stderr instead of
57              syslog."
58
59       -r, --random-multimount-selection
60              Enables the use of ramdom selection when choosing a host from  a
61              list of replicated servers.
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63       -m, --dumpmaps [<map type> <map name>]
64              With  no parameters, list information about the configured auto‐
65              mounter maps, then exit.
66
67              If the dumpmaps option is given and is followed by  two  parame‐
68              ters,  "<map  type> <map name>" then simple "<key, value>" pairs
69              that would be read in by a map read are printed to stdout if the
70              given map type and map name are found in the map configuration.
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72              If the map is an LDAP map and there is more than one map of same
73              name in different base dns only the  first  map  encountered  by
74              autofs  will  be listed. Similarly, if the map is a file map and
75              there is more than one map of the same name in different  direc‐
76              tories, only the first map encountered will be listed.
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78              If the map type is an old style multi-map and any one of the map
79              names in the multi-map entry matches the given map name the  en‐
80              tries  that would be used by autofs for the whole multi-map will
81              be listed.
82
83       -O, --global-options
84              Allows the specification of global mount options  used  for  all
85              master  map entries. These options will either replace or be ap‐
86              pened to options given in a master map entry  depending  on  the
87              APPEND_OPTIONS configuration setting.
88
89       -V, --version
90              Display the version number, then exit.
91
92       -l, --set-log-priority priority path [path,...]
93              Set  the daemon log priority to the specified value.  Valid val‐
94              ues include the numbers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert,  crit,
95              err,  warning,  notice, info, or debug. Log level debug will log
96              everything, log levels info, warn (or warning), or  notice  with
97              enable  the daemon verbose logging. Any other level will set ba‐
98              sic logging. Note that enabling debug or verbose logging in  the
99              autofs  global  configuration  will  override  dynamic log level
100              changes. For example, if verbose logging is set in the  configu‐
101              ration then attempting to set logging to basic logging, by using
102              alert, crit, err or emerg won't stop the verbose logging. Howev‐
103              er, setting logging to debug will lead to everything (debug log‐
104              ging) being logged witch can then also  be  disabled,  returning
105              the  daemon  to verbose logging. This option can be specified to
106              change the logging priority  of  an  already  running  automount
107              process.
108
109       The path argument corresponds to the automounted path name as specified
110       in the master map.
111
112       -C, --dont-check-daemon
113              Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).
114
115       -F, --force
116              Force an unlink umount of existing mounts under  autofs  managed
117              mount  points  during  startup. This can cause problems for pro‐
118              cesses with working directories within these mounts (see NOTES).
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ARGUMENTS

121       automount takes one optional argument, the name of the  master  map  to
122       use.
123
124       master_map
125              Location for autofs master map that defines autofs managed mount
126              points and  the  mount  maps  they  will  use.  The  default  is
127              auto.master.
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NOTES

130       If  the automount daemon catches a USR1 signal, it will umount all cur‐
131       rently unused autofs managed mounted file systems and continue  running
132       (forced  expire).  If it catches the TERM signal it will umount all un‐
133       used autofs managed mounted file systems and exit if there are  no  re‐
134       maining  busy file systems. If autofs has been compiled with the option
135       to ignore busy mounts on exit it will exit leaving any busy  mounts  in
136       place  otherwise busy file systems will not be umounted and autofs will
137       not exit.  Alternatively, if autofs has been compiled with  the  option
138       to  enable  forced shutdown then a USR2 signal to the daemon will cause
139       all mounts to be umounted and any busy mounts to be forcibly  umounted,
140       including autofs mount point directories (summary execution). Note that
141       the forced umount is an unlink operation and the actual umount will not
142       happen  in the kernel until active file handles are released.  The dae‐
143       mon also responds to a HUP signal which triggers an update of the  maps
144       for each mount point.
145
146       If  any autofs mount point directories are busy when the daemon is sent
147       an exit signal the daemon will not exit. The exception to  this  is  if
148       autofs  has  been  built  with  configure options to either ignore busy
149       mounts at exit or force umount at exit. If the ignore  busy  mounts  at
150       exit  option  is used the filesystems will be left in a catatonic (non-
151       functional) state and can be manually umounted when they become unused.
152       If  the  force  umount  at  exit option is used the filesystems will be
153       umounted but the mount will not be released by the  kernel  until  they
154       are  no  longer  in use by the processes that held them busy.  If auto‐
155       mount managed filesystems are found mounted when autofs is started they
156       will  be recoverd unless they are no longer present in the map in which
157       case they need to umounted manually.
158
159       If the option to disable the check to see if the daemon is already run‐
160       ning  is used be aware that autofs currently may not function correctly
161       for certain types of automount maps. The mounts of the seperate daemons
162       might  interfere with one another. The implications of running multiple
163       daemon instances needs to be checked and tested before we can say  this
164       is supported.
165
166       If the option to force an unlink of mounts at startup is used then pro‐
167       cesses whose working directory is within unlinked automounted  directo‐
168       ries will not get the correct pwd from the system. This is because, af‐
169       ter the mount is unlinked from the mount tree, anything that  needs  to
170       walk  back up the mount tree to construct a path, such as getcwd(2) and
171       the proc filesystem /proc/<pid>/cwd, cannot work because the point from
172       which the path is constructed has been detached from the mount tree.
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SEE ALSO

175       autofs(5),  autofs(8),  autofs.conf(5), auto.master(5), mount(8).  aut‐
176       ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5)
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BUGS

179       Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.
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181       The documentation could be better.
182
183       Please report other bugs along with a  detailed  description  to  <aut‐
184       ofs@linux.kernel.org>. For instructions on how to join the list and for
185       archives visit http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
186

AUTHOR

188       H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.
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192                                  12 Apr 2006                     AUTOMOUNT(8)
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