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

6       automount - manage autofs mount points
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SYNOPSIS

9       automount [options] [master_map]
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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.
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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 debugging messages for all autofs managed mounts.
49
50       -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.
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55       -S, --systemd-service
56              Used when running the automounter as a systemd service to ensure
57              log entry format is consistent with the log  entry  format  when
58              running as a daemon.
59
60       -f, --foreground
61              Run  the  daemon  in the foreground and log to stderr instead of
62              syslog."
63
64       -r, --random-multimount-selection
65              Enables the use of random selection when choosing a host from  a
66              list of replicated servers.
67
68       -m, --dumpmaps [<map type> <map name>]
69              With  no parameters, list information about the configured auto‐
70              mounter maps, then exit.
71
72              If the dumpmaps option is given and is followed by  two  parame‐
73              ters,  "<map  type> <map name>" then simple "<key, value>" pairs
74              that would be read in by a map read are printed to stdout if the
75              given map type and map name are found in the map configuration.
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77              If the map is an LDAP map and there is more than one map of same
78              name in different base dns only the  first  map  encountered  by
79              autofs  will  be listed. Similarly, if the map is a file map and
80              there is more than one map of the same name in different  direc‐
81              tories, only the first map encountered will be listed.
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83              If the map type is an old style multi-map and any one of the map
84              names in the multi-map entry matches the given map name the  en‐
85              tries  that would be used by autofs for the whole multi-map will
86              be listed.
87
88       -O, --global-options
89              Allows the specification of global mount options  used  for  all
90              master  map entries. These options will either replace or be ap‐
91              pended to options given in a master map entry depending  on  the
92              APPEND_OPTIONS configuration setting.
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94       -V, --version
95              Display the version number, then exit.
96
97       -l, --set-log-priority priority path [path,...]
98              Set  the daemon log priority to the specified value.  Valid val‐
99              ues include the numbers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert,  crit,
100              err,  warning,  notice, info, or debug. Log level debug will log
101              everything, log levels info, warn (or warning), or  notice  with
102              enable  the daemon verbose logging. Any other level will set ba‐
103              sic logging. Note that enabling debug or verbose logging in  the
104              autofs  global  configuration  will  override  dynamic log level
105              changes. For example, if verbose logging is set in the  configu‐
106              ration then attempting to set logging to basic logging, by using
107              alert, crit, err or emerg won't stop the verbose logging. Howev‐
108              er, setting logging to debug will lead to everything (debug log‐
109              ging) being logged witch can then also  be  disabled,  returning
110              the  daemon  to verbose logging. This option can be specified to
111              change the logging priority  of  an  already  running  automount
112              process.
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114              The  path  argument  corresponds to the automounted path name as
115              specified in the master map.
116
117       -C, --dont-check-daemon
118              Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).
119
120       -F, --force
121              Force an unlink umount of existing mounts under configured  aut‐
122              ofs managed mount points during startup. This can cause problems
123              for processes with working directories within these mounts  (see
124              NOTES).
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126       -U, --force-exit
127              Force  an unlink umount of existing mounts under configured aut‐
128              ofs managed mount points and exit  rather  than  continuing  the
129              startup.  This can cause problems for processes with working di‐
130              rectories within these mounts (see NOTES).
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ARGUMENTS

133       automount takes one optional argument, the name of the  master  map  to
134       use.
135
136       master_map
137              Location for autofs master map that defines autofs managed mount
138              points and  the  mount  maps  they  will  use.  The  default  is
139              auto.master.
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NOTES

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

187       autofs(5),  autofs(8),  autofs.conf(5),  auto.master(5), mount(8), aut‐
188       ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5).
189

BUGS

191       Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.
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193       The documentation could be better.
194
195       Please report other bugs along with a  detailed  description  to  <aut‐
196       ofs@vger.kernel.org>. Visit http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#aut‐
197       ofs for information about the list.
198

AUTHOR

200       H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.
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204                                  12 Apr 2006                     AUTOMOUNT(8)
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