1automount(1M)           System Administration Commands           automount(1M)
2
3
4

NAME

6       automount - install automatic mount points
7

SYNOPSIS

9       /usr/sbin/automount [-t duration] [-v]
10
11

DESCRIPTION

13       The  automount  utility  installs autofs mount points and associates an
14       automount map with each mount point. It starts the automountd(1M)  dae‐
15       mon  if it finds any non-trivial entries in either local or distributed
16       automount maps and if the daemon is not  already  running.  The  autofs
17       file system monitors attempts to access directories within it and noti‐
18       fies the automountd(1M) daemon. The daemon uses the  map  to  locate  a
19       file  system, which it then mounts at the point of reference within the
20       autofs file system. A map can be assigned to an autofs mount  using  an
21       entry in the /etc/auto_master map or a direct map.
22
23
24       If  the  file system is not accessed within an appropriate interval (10
25       minutes by default), the automountd daemon unmounts the file system.
26
27
28       The file /etc/auto_master determines the locations of all autofs  mount
29       points. By default, this file contains three entries:
30
31         # Master map for automounter
32         #
33         +auto_master
34         /net          -hosts    -nosuid
35         /home         auto_home
36
37
38
39
40       The +auto_master entry is a reference to an external NIS or NIS+ master
41       map. If one exists, then its entries are read as if  they  occurred  in
42       place  of  the  +auto_master entry. The remaining entries in the master
43       file specify a directory on which an autofs mount will be made followed
44       by the automounter map to be associated with it. Optional mount options
45       may be supplied as an optional third field in  the  each  entry.  These
46       options  are  used for any entries in the map that do not specify mount
47       options explicitly. The automount command is usually run without  argu‐
48       ments.  It  compares the entries /etc/auto_master with the current list
49       of autofs mounts in /etc/mnttab and adds,  removes  or  updates  autofs
50       mounts  to  bring the /etc/mnttab up to date with the /etc/auto_master.
51       At boot time it installs all autofs mounts from the master map.  Subse‐
52       quently,  it may be run to install autofs mounts for new entries in the
53       master map or the direct map, or to perform unmounts for  entries  that
54       have been removed from these maps.
55
56   Automount with Solaris Trusted Extensions
57       If  a  system is configured with Solaris Trusted Extensions, additional
58       processing is performed to facilitate multilevel home directory access.
59       A  list of zones whose labels are dominated by the current zone is gen‐
60       erated and default auto_home automount maps are generated  if  they  do
61       not  currently  exist.  These automount maps are named auto_home_<zone‐
62       name>, where <zonename> is the name of each zone's lower-level zone. An
63       autofs  mount  of each such auto_home map is then performed, regardless
64       of whether it is explicitly or implicitly listed  in  the  master  map.
65       Instead of autofs mounting the standard auto_home map, the zone uses an
66       auto_home file appended with its own zone name. Each  zone's  auto_home
67       map  is  uniquely  named so that it can be maintained and shared by all
68       zones using a common name server.
69
70
71       By default, the home directories of lower-level zones are mounted read-
72       only  under  /zone/<zonename>/export/home when each zone is booted. The
73       default auto_home_<zonename> automount map specifies that path  as  the
74       source  directory for an lofs remount onto /zone/<zonename>/home/<user‐
75       name>. For example, the file  auto_home_public,  as  generated  from  a
76       higher level zone would contain:
77
78
79       +auto_home_public
80
81
82       *       -fstype=lofs    :/zone/public/export/home/&
83
84
85       When  a  home  directory  is referenced and the name does not match any
86       other keys in the auto_home_public map, it  will  match  this  loopback
87       mount  specification. If this loopback match occurs and the name corre‐
88       sponds to a valid user whose home directory does not exist in the  pub‐
89       lic zone, the directory is automatically created on behalf of the user.
90

OPTIONS

92       The following options are supported:
93
94       -t duration    Specifies  a duration, in seconds, that a file system is
95                      to remain mounted when not in use.  The  default  is  10
96                      minutes.
97
98
99       -v             Verbose  mode.  Notifies  of autofs mounts, unmounts, or
100                      other non-essential information.
101
102

USAGE

104   Map Entry Format
105       A simple map entry (mapping) takes the form:
106
107         key [ -mount-options ] location ...
108
109
110
111
112       where key is the full pathname of the directory to mount when used in a
113       direct  map,  or  the simple name of a subdirectory in an indirect map.
114       mount-options is a comma-separated list of mount options, and  location
115       specifies a file system from which the directory may be mounted. In the
116       case of a simple NFS mount, the options that can be used are as  speci‐
117       fied in mount_nfs(1M), and location takes the form:
118
119         host:pathname
120
121
122
123
124       host  is  the name of the host from which to mount the file system, and
125       pathname is the absolute pathname of the directory to mount.
126
127
128       Options to other file systems are documented on the other mount_*  ref‐
129       erence manual pages, for example, mount_cachefs(1M).
130
131   Replicated File Systems
132       Multiple  location fields can be specified for replicated NFS file sys‐
133       tems, in which case automount and the kernel will each try to use  that
134       information  to  increase availability. If the read-only flag is set in
135       the map entry, automountd mounts a list of locations  that  the  kernel
136       may  use, sorted by several criteria. Only locations available at mount
137       time will be mounted, and thus be  available  to  the  kernel.  When  a
138       server does not respond, the kernel will switch to an alternate server.
139       The sort ordering of automount is used to determine how the next server
140       is  chosen.  If the read-only flag is not set, automount will mount the
141       best single location, chosen by the same sort ordering, and new servers
142       will only be chosen when an unmount has been possible, and a remount is
143       done. Servers on the same local subnet are given the strongest  prefer‐
144       ence, and servers on the local net are given the second strongest pref‐
145       erence. Among servers equally far away, response times  will  determine
146       the order if no weighting factors (see below) are used.
147
148
149       If the list includes server locations using both the NFS Version 2 Pro‐
150       tocol and the NFS Version 3 Protocol, automount will choose only a sub‐
151       set  of  the  server locations on the list, so that all entries will be
152       the same protocol. It will choose servers with the NFS Version 3 Proto‐
153       col  so long as an NFS Version 2 Protocol server on a local subnet will
154       not be ignored. See the  for additional details.
155
156
157       If each location in the list shares the same  pathname  then  a  single
158       location may be used with a comma-separated list of hostnames:
159
160         hostname,hostname...:pathname
161
162
163
164
165       Requests  for  a  server  may  be  weighted,  with the weighting factor
166       appended to the server name as an integer in parentheses. Servers with‐
167       out  a weighting are assumed to have a value of zero (most likely to be
168       selected). Progressively higher values decrease  the  chance  of  being
169       selected. In the example,
170
171         man -ro alpha,bravo,charlie(1),delta(4):/usr/man
172
173
174
175
176       hosts  alpha  and  bravo  have the highest priority; host delta has the
177       lowest.
178
179
180       Server proximity takes priority in the selection process. In the  exam‐
181       ple  above,  if  the server delta is on the same network segment as the
182       client, but the others are on different network  segments,  then  delta
183       will  be  selected;  the  weighting value is ignored. The weighting has
184       effect only when selecting between servers with the same network  prox‐
185       imity.  The automounter always selects the localhost over other servers
186       on the same network segment, regardless of weighting.
187
188
189       In cases where each server has a different export point, the  weighting
190       can still be applied. For example:
191
192         man -ro alpha:/usr/man  bravo,charlie(1):/usr/share/man
193              delta(3):/export/man
194
195
196
197
198       A  mapping  can be continued across input lines by escaping the NEWLINE
199       with a backslash (\) Comments begin with a number sign (#) and  end  at
200       the subsequent NEWLINE.
201
202   Map Key Substitution
203       The  ampersand  (&) character is expanded to the value of the key field
204       for the entry in which it occurs. In this case:
205
206         jane sparcserver:/home/&
207
208
209
210
211       the & expands to jane.
212
213   Wildcard Key
214       The asterisk (*) character, when supplied as the key field,  is  recog‐
215       nized as the catch-all entry. Such an entry will match any key not pre‐
216       viously matched. For instance, if the following entry appeared  in  the
217       indirect map for /config:
218
219         *         &:/export/config/&
220
221
222
223
224       this  would allow automatic mounts in /config of any remote file system
225       whose location could be specified as:
226
227         hostname:/export/config/hostname
228
229
230
231
232       Note that the wildcard key  does  not  work  in  conjunction  with  the
233       -browse option.
234
235   Variable Substitution
236       Client  specific  variables  can  be  used within an automount map. For
237       instance, if $HOST appeared within a map, automount would expand it  to
238       its current value for the client's host name. Supported variables are:
239
240
241
242
243       ARCH          The output of arch                  The architecture name.
244                                                         For example, sun4 on a
245                                                         sun4u machine.
246       CPU           The output of uname -p              The processor type.
247                                                         For example, "sparc"
248       HOST          The output of uname -n              The host name.
249                                                         For example, myhost.
250       KARCH         The output of arch -k or uname -m   The  kernel  architec‐
251                                                         ture name  or  machine
252                                                         hardware   name.   For
253                                                         example, sun4u.
254
255       OSNAME        The output of uname -s              The OS name.
256                                                         For example, "SunOS"
257       OSREL         The output of uname -r              The OS release name.
258                                                         For example "5.3"
259       OSVERS        The output of uname -v              The OS version.
260                                                         For example, "beta1.0"
261       NATISA        The output of isainfo -n            The native instruction
262                                                         set  architecture  for
263                                                         the system.
264                                                         For example, "sparcv9"
265
266
267
268       PLATFORM      The output of uname -i              The platform name. For
269                                                         example,     SUNW,Sun-
270                                                         Fire-V240.
271
272
273
274
275       If a reference needs to be protected from affixed characters,  you  can
276       surround the variable name with curly braces ({}).
277
278   Multiple Mounts
279       A multiple mount entry takes the form:
280
281         key [-mount-options] [[mountpoint] [-mount-options] location...]...
282
283
284
285
286       The initial /[mountpoint] is optional for the first mount and mandatory
287       for all subsequent mounts. The optional mountpoint is taken as a  path‐
288       name  relative  to the directory named by key. If mountpoint is omitted
289       in the first occurrence, a mountpoint of / (root) is implied.
290
291
292       Given an entry in the indirect map for /src
293
294         beta     -ro\
295           /           svr1,svr2:/export/src/beta  \
296           /1.0        svr1,svr2:/export/src/beta/1.0  \
297           /1.0/man    svr1,svr2:/export/src/beta/1.0/man
298
299
300
301
302       All offsets must exist on the server under beta. automount  will  auto‐
303       matically  mount  /src/beta,  /src/beta/1.0,  and /src/beta/1.0/man, as
304       needed, from either  svr1  or  svr2,  whichever  host  is  nearest  and
305       responds first.
306
307   Other File System Types
308       The automounter assumes NFS mounts as a default file system type. Other
309       file system types can be described using the fstype mount option. Other
310       mount  options  specific  to this file system type can be combined with
311       the fstype option. The location field must contain information specific
312       to  the  file system type. If the location field begins with a slash, a
313       colon character must be prepended, for instance, to  mount  a  CD  file
314       system:
315
316         cdrom -fstype=hsfs,ro   :/dev/sr0
317
318
319
320
321       or to perform an autofs mount:
322
323         src -fstype=autofs    auto_src
324
325
326
327
328       Use this procedure only if you are not using Volume Manager.
329
330
331       Mounts  using  CacheFS are most useful when applied to an entire map as
332       map defaults. The following entry in the master  map  describes  cached
333       home  directory  mounts.  It  assumes the default location of the cache
334       directory, /cache.
335
336         /home auto_home -fstype =cachefs,backfstype=nfs
337
338
339
340
341       See the  NOTES section for information on option inheritance.
342
343   Indirect Maps
344       An indirect map allows you to specify mappings for  the  subdirectories
345       you wish to mount under the directory indicated on the command line. In
346       an indirect map, each key consists of a simple name that refers to  one
347       or more file systems that are to be mounted as needed.
348
349   Direct Maps
350       Entries  in  a  direct  map  are  associated directly with autofs mount
351       points. Each key is the full pathname of an  autofs  mount  point.  The
352       direct map as a whole is not associated with any single directory.
353
354
355       Direct  maps  are  distinguished  from indirect maps by the /- key. For
356       example:
357
358         # Master map for automounter
359         #
360         +auto_master
361         /net            -hosts          -nosuid,nobrowse
362         /home           auto_home       -nobrowse
363         /-              auto_direct
364
365
366
367   Included Maps
368       The contents of another map can be included within a map with an  entry
369       of the form
370
371         +mapname
372
373
374
375
376       If  mapname  begins with a slash, it is assumed to be the pathname of a
377       local file. Otherwise, the location of the map  is  determined  by  the
378       policy  of the name service switch according to the entry for the auto‐
379       mounter in /etc/nsswitch.conf, such as
380
381         automount: files nis
382
383
384
385
386       If the name service is files, then the name is assumed to be that of  a
387       local  file  in /etc. If the key being searched for is not found in the
388       included map, the search continues with the next entry.
389
390   Special Maps
391       There are two special maps available: -hosts and -null. The -hosts  map
392       is  used  with  the  /net directory and assumes that the map key is the
393       hostname of an NFS server. The automountd daemon dynamically constructs
394       a map entry from the server's list of exported file systems. References
395       to a directory under /net/hermes will refer to the corresponding direc‐
396       tory relative to hermes root.
397
398
399       The  -null map cancels a previous map for the directory indicated. This
400       is most useful in the  /etc/auto_master  for  cancelling  entries  that
401       would otherwise be inherited from the +auto_master include entry. To be
402       effective, the -null entries must be inserted before the  included  map
403       entry.
404
405   Executable Maps
406       Local maps that have the execute bit set in their file permissions will
407       be executed by the automounter and provided with a key to be looked  up
408       as an argument. The executable map is expected to return the content of
409       an automounter map entry on its stdout or no output if the entry cannot
410       be determined. A direct map cannot be made executable.
411
412   Configuration and the auto_master Map
413       When initiated without arguments, automount consults the master map for
414       a list of autofs mount points and their  maps.  It  mounts  any  autofs
415       mounts  that  are  not already mounted, and unmounts autofs mounts that
416       have been removed from the master map or direct map.
417
418
419       The master map is assumed to be called auto_master and its location  is
420       determined  by  the name service switch policy. Normally the master map
421       is located initially as a local file /etc/auto_master.
422
423   Browsing
424       The automount daemon  supports  browsability  of  indirect  maps.  This
425       allows  all of the potential mount points to be visible, whether or not
426       they are mounted. The -nobrowse option can be  added  to  any  indirect
427       autofs map to disable browsing. For example:
428
429         /net     -hosts      -nosuid,nobrowse
430         /home    auto_home
431
432
433
434
435       In  this  case,  any hostnames would only be visible in /net after they
436       are mounted, but all potential mount  points  would  be  visible  under
437       /home.  The -browse option enables browsability of autofs file systems.
438       This is the default for all indirect maps.
439
440
441       The -browse option does not work in conjunction with the wildcard key.
442
443   Restricting Mount Maps
444       Options specified for a map are used as the default options for all the
445       entries  in  that  map. They are ignored when map entries specify their
446       own mount options.
447
448
449       In some cases, however, it is desirable  to  force  nosuid,  nodevices,
450       nosetuid,  or  noexec  for a complete mount map and its submounts. This
451       can be done by specifying the additional mount option, -restrict.
452
453          /home     auto_home       -restrict,nosuid,hard
454
455
456
457
458       The -restrict option forces the  inheritance  of  all  the  restrictive
459       options nosuid, nodevices, nosetuid, and noexec as well as the restrict
460       option itself. In this particular  example,  the  nosuid  and  restrict
461       option  are  inherited  but the hard option is not. The restrict option
462       also prevents the execution of "executable maps" and  is  enforced  for
463       auto  mounts  established  by  programs  with fewer than all privileges
464       available in their zone.
465

EXIT STATUS

467       The following exit values are returned:
468
469       0    Successful completion.
470
471
472       1    An error occurred.
473
474

FILES

476       /etc/auto_master       Master automount map.
477
478
479       /etc/auto_home         Map to support automounted home directories.
480
481
482       /etc/default/autofs    Supplies default values for parameters for auto‐
483                              mount and automountd. See autofs(4).
484
485
486       /etc/nsswitch.conf     Name service switch configuration file. See nss‐
487                              witch.conf(4).
488
489

ATTRIBUTES

491       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
492
493
494
495
496       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
497       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         │      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        │
498       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
499       │Availability                 │SUNWcsu                      │
500       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
501

SEE ALSO

503       isainfo(1),  ls(1),  svcs(1),  uname(1),   automountd(1M),   mount(1M),
504       mount_cachefs(     1M),     mount_nfs(1M),    svcadm(1M),    autofs(4),
505       attributes(5), nfssec(5), smf(5)
506
507
508
509

NOTES

511       autofs mount points must not be hierarchically related. automount  does
512       not  allow  an  autofs  mount point to be created within another autofs
513       mount.
514
515
516       Since each direct map entry results in a new  autofs  mount  such  maps
517       should be kept short.
518
519
520       Entries  in  both direct and indirect maps can be modified at any time.
521       The new information is used when automountd next uses the map entry  to
522       do a mount.
523
524
525       New  entries  added  to  a  master map or direct map will not be useful
526       until the automount command is run to install them as new autofs  mount
527       points. New entries added to an indirect map may be used immediately.
528
529
530       As  of  the  Solaris  2.6  release, a listing (see ls(1)) of the autofs
531       directory associated with an indirect map shows all potential mountable
532       entries. The attributes associated with the potential mountable entries
533       are temporary. The real file system attributes will only be shown  once
534       the file system has been mounted.
535
536
537       Default  mount  options can be assigned to an entire map when specified
538       as an optional third field in the master map. These options apply  only
539       to  map entries that have no mount options. Note that map entities with
540       options override the default options, as at this time, the  options  do
541       not  concatenate.  The  concatenation  feature  is planned for a future
542       release.
543
544
545       When operating on a map that invokes an NFS mount, the  default  number
546       of  retries  for the automounter is 0, that is, a single mount attempt,
547       with no retries. Note that this is  significantly  different  from  the
548       default (10000) for the mount_nfs(1M) utility.
549
550
551       The  Network Information Service (NIS) was formerly known as Sun Yellow
552       Pages (YP). The functionality of the two remains the same.
553
554
555       The automount service is managed by the  service  management  facility,
556       smf(5), under the service identifier:
557
558         svc:/system/filesystem/autofs:default
559
560
561
562
563       Administrative actions on this service, such as enabling, disabling, or
564       requesting restart, can be performed using  svcadm(1M).  The  service's
565       status can be queried using the svcs(1) command.
566
567
568
569SunOS 5.11                        28 Mar 2008                    automount(1M)
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