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2NFSREF(8) System Manager's Manual NFSREF(8)
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7 nfsref - manage NFS referrals
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10 nfsref [-?d] [-t type] add pathname server export [ server export ... ]
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12 nfsref [-?d] [-t type] remove pathname
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14 nfsref [-?d] [-t type] lookup pathname
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17 NFS version 4 introduces the concept of file system referrals to NFS.
18 A file system referral is like a symbolic link on a file server to
19 another file system share, possibly on another file server. On an NFS
20 client, a referral behaves like an automounted directory. The client,
21 under the server's direction, mounts a new NFS export automatically
22 when an application first accesses that directory.
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24 Referrals are typically used to construct a single file name space
25 across multiple file servers. Because file servers control the shape
26 of the name space, no client configuration is required, and all clients
27 see the same referral information.
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29 The Linux NFS server supports NFS version 4 referrals. Administrators
30 can specify the refer= export option in /etc/exports to configure a
31 list of exports from which the client can choose. See exports(5) for
32 details.
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35 The nfsref(8) command is a simple way to get started managing junction
36 metadata. Other administrative commands provide richer access to junc‐
37 tion information.
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39 Subcommands
40 Valid nfsref(8) subcommands are:
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42 add Adds junction information to the directory named by pathname.
43 The named directory must already exist, and must not already
44 contain junction information. Regular directory contents are
45 obscured to NFS clients by this operation.
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47 A list of one or more file server and export path pairs is also
48 specified on the command line. When creating an NFS basic junc‐
49 tion, this list is stored in an extended attribute of the direc‐
50 tory.
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52 If junction creation is successful, the nfsref(8) command
53 flushes the kernel's export cache to remove previously cached
54 junction information.
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56 remove Removes junction information from the directory named by path‐
57 name. The named directory must exist, and must contain junction
58 information. Regular directory contents are made visible to NFS
59 clients again by this operation.
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61 If junction deletion is successful, the nfsref(8) command
62 flushes the kernel's export cache to remove previously cached
63 junction information.
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65 lookup Displays junction information stored in the directory named by
66 pathname. The named directory must exist, and must contain
67 junction information.
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69 When looking up an NFS basic junction, the junction information
70 in the directory is listed on stdout.
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72 Command line options
73 -d, --debug
74 Enables debugging messages during operation.
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76 -t, --type=junction-type
77 Specifies the junction type for the operation. Valid values for
78 junction-type are nfs-basic or nfs-fedfs.
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80 For the add subcommand, the default value if this option is not
81 specified is nfs-basic. For the remove and lookup subcommands,
82 the --type option is not required. The nfsref(8) command oper‐
83 ates on whatever junction contents are available.
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86 Suppose you have two file servers, top.example.net and home.exam‐
87 ple.net. You want all your clients to mount top.example.net:/ and then
88 see the files under home.example.net:/ automatically in top:/home.
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90 On top.example.net, you might issue this command as root:
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92 # mkdir /home
93 # nfsref --type=nfs-basic add /home home.example.net /
94 Created junction /home.
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98 /etc/exports
99 NFS server export table
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102 exports(5)
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104 RFC 5661 for a description of NFS version 4 referrals
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107 Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com>
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111 9 Jan 2018 NFSREF(8)