1AUTOMOUNT(8) System Manager's Manual AUTOMOUNT(8)
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6 automount - manage autofs mount points
7
9 automount [options] [master_map]
10
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(8) 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.
18
20 -h, --help
21 Print brief help on program usage.
22 -p, --pid-file
24 Write the pid of the daemon to the specified file.
25 -t, --timeout
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.
30 -n <seconds>, --negative-timeout <seconds>
32 Set the default timeout for caching failed key lookups. The de‐
33 fault is 60 seconds.
34 -v, --verbose
36 Enables logging of general status and progress messages for all
37 autofs managed mounts.
38 -d, --debug
40 Enables logging of general status and progress messages as well
41 as debuging messages for all autofs managed mounts.
42 -Dvariable=value
44 Define a global macro substitution variable. Global definitions
45 are over-ridden macro definitions of the same name specified in
46 mount entries.
47 -f, --foreground
49 Run the daemon in the forground and log to stderr instead of
50 syslog."
51 -r, --random-multimount-selection
53 Enables the use of ramdom selection when choosing a host from a
54 list of replicated servers.
55 -O, --global-options
57 Allows the specification of global mount options used for all
58 master map entries. These options will either replace or be ap‐
59 pened to options given in a master map entry depending on the
60 APPEND_OPTIONS configuration setting.
61 -V, --version
63 Display the version number, then exit.
64 -l, --set-log-priority priority path [path,...]
66 Set the daemon log priority to the specified value. Valid val‐
67 ues include the numbers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert, crit,
68 err, warning, notice, info, or debug. Log level debug will log
69 everything, log levels info, warn (or warning), or notice with
70 enable the daemon verbose logging. Any other level will set ba‐
71 sic logging. Note that enabling debug or verbose logging in the
72 autofs global configuration will override dynamic log level
73 changes. For example, if verbose logging is set in the configu‐
74 ration then attempting to set logging to basic logging, by using
75 alert, crit, err or emerg won't stop the verbose logging. Howev‐
76 er, setting logging to debug will lead to everything (debug log‐
77 ging) being logged witch can then also be disabled, returning
78 the daemon to verbose logging. This option can be specified to
79 change the logging priority of an already running automount
80 process.
81 The path argument corresponds to the automounted path name as specified
83 in the master map.
84 -C, --dont-check-daemon
86 Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).
87 -F, --force
89 Force an unlink umount of existing mounts under autofs managed
90 mount points during startup. This can cause problems for pro‐
91 cesses with working directories within these mounts (see NOTES).
92
94 automount takes one optional argument, the name of the master map to
95 use.
96 master_map
98 Location for autofs master map that defines autofs managed mount
99 points and the mount maps they will use. The default is
100 auto.master.
101
103 If the automount daemon catches a USR1 signal, it will umount all cur‐
104 rently unused autofs managed mounted file systems and continue running
105 (forced expire). If it catches the TERM signal it will umount all un‐
106 used autofs managed mounted file systems and exit if there are no re‐
107 maining busy file systems. If autofs has been compiled with the option
108 to ignore busy mounts on exit it will exit leaving any busy mounts in
109 place otherwise busy file systems will not be umounted and autofs will
110 not exit. Alternatively, if autofs has been compiled with the option
111 to enable forced shutdown then a USR2 signal to the daemon will cause
112 all mounts to be umounted and any busy mounts to be forcibly umounted,
113 including autofs mount point directories (summary execution). Note that
114 the forced umount is an unlink operation and the actual umount will not
115 happen in the kernel until active file handles are released. The dae‐
116 mon also responds to a HUP signal which triggers an update of the maps
117 for each mount point.
118 If any autofs mount point directories are busy when the daemon is sent
120 an exit signal the daemon will not exit. The exception to this is if
121 autofs has been built with configure options to either ignore busy
122 mounts at exit or force umount at exit. If the ignore busy mounts at
123 exit option is used the filesystems will be left in a catatonic (non-
124 functional) state and can be manually umounted when they become unused.
125 If the force umount at exit option is used the filesystems will be
126 umounted but the mount will not be released by the kernel until they
127 are no longer in use by the processes that held them busy. If auto‐
128 mount managed filesystems are found mounted when autofs is started they
129 will be recoverd unless they are no longer present in the map in which
130 case they need to umounted manually.
131 If the option to disable the check to see if the daemon is already run‐
133 ning is used be aware that autofs currently may not function correctly
134 for certain types of automount maps. The mounts of the seperate daemons
135 might interfere with one another. The implications of running multiple
136 daemon instances needs to be checked and tested before we can say this
137 is supported.
138 If the option to force an unlink of mounts at startup is used then pro‐
140 cesses whose working directory is within unlinked automounted directo‐
141 ries will not get the correct pwd from the system. This is because, af‐
142 ter the mount is unlinked from the mount tree, anything that needs to
143 walk back up the mount tree to construct a path, such as getcwd(2) and
144 the proc filesystem /proc/<pid>/cwd, cannot work because the point from
145 which the path is constructed has been detached from the mount tree.
146
148 autofs(5), autofs(8), auto.master(5), mount(8). aut‐
149 ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5)
150
152 Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.
153 The documentation could be better.
155 Please report other bugs along with a detailed description to <aut‐
157 ofs@linux.kernel.org>. For instructions on how to join the list and for
158 archives visit http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
159
161 H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.
162 12 Apr 2006 AUTOMOUNT(8)