1AUTOMOUNT(8) System Manager's Manual AUTOMOUNT(8)
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6 automount - manage autofs mount points
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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(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.
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 <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.
33 -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 -n <seconds>, --negative-timeout <seconds>
39 Set the default timeout for caching failed key lookups. The de‐
40 fault is 60 seconds.
41 -v, --verbose
43 Enables logging of general status and progress messages for all
44 autofs managed mounts.
45 -d, --debug
47 Enables logging of general status and progress messages as well
48 as debugging messages for all autofs managed mounts.
49 -Dvariable=value, --define variable=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.
54 -f, --foreground
56 Run the daemon in the foreground and log to stderr instead of
57 syslog."
58 -r, --random-multimount-selection
60 Enables the use of random selection when choosing a host from a
61 list of replicated servers.
62 -m, --dumpmaps [<map type> <map name>]
64 With no parameters, list information about the configured auto‐
65 mounter maps, then exit.
66 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.
71 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.
77 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 -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 -V, --version
90 Display the version number, then exit.
91 -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 The path argument corresponds to the automounted path name as specified
110 in the master map.
111 -C, --dont-check-daemon
113 Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).
114 -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).
119
121 automount takes one optional argument, the name of the master map to
122 use.
123 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.
128
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 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 recovered unless they are no longer present in the map in which
157 case they need to umounted manually.
158 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 separate 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 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.
173
175 autofs(5), autofs(8), autofs.conf(5), auto.master(5), mount(8), aut‐
176 ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5).
177
179 Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.
180 The documentation could be better.
182 Please report other bugs along with a detailed description to <aut‐
184 ofs@vger.kernel.org>. Visit http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#aut‐
185 ofs for information about the list.
186
188 H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.
189 12 Apr 2006 AUTOMOUNT(8)