AUTOMOUNT(8)

NAME
automount - configure mount points for autofs

SYNOPSIS
automount [options] mount-point map-type[,format] map [map-options]

DESCRIPTION
The automount program is used to configure a mount point for autofs, the inlined Linux automounter. automount works by taking a base mount-point and map file, and using these (combined with other options) to automatically mount filesystems within the base mount-point when they are accessed in any way. The filesystems are then autounmounted after a period of inactivity.

OPTIONS

-t, --timeout
    Set the minimum timeout, in seconds, until directories are unmounted. The default is 5 minutes. Setting the timeout to zero disables unmounts completely.

-v, --version
    Display the version number, then exit.

ARGUMENTS
automount takes at least three arguments. Mandatory arguments include mount-point, map-type and map. Both mandatory and optional arguments are described below.

mount-point
    Base location for autofs-mounted filesystems to be attached. This is a directory name which must already exist.

map-type
    Type of map used for this invocation of automount. The following are valid map types:

    file
        The map is a regular text file.

    program
        The map is an executable program, which is passed a key on the command line and returns an entry on stdout if successful.

    yp  The map is an NIS (YP) database.

format
    Format of the map data; currently the only format recognized is sun, which is a subset of the Sun automounter map format. The default format is technically map type dependent, although currently all map types default to sun format.

map Location of mapfile to use. This is an absolute UNIX pathname in the case for maps of types file and program, and the name of an NIS database in the case for maps of type yp.

options
    Any remaining command line arguments without leading dashes (-) are taken as options (-o) to mount. Arguments with leading dashes are considered options for the maps.

NOTES
If the automount daemon catches signal USR1, it will unmount all currently unused autofs-mounted filesystems and continue running (forced unmount.) If it catches signal USR2 it will unmount all unused autofs-mounted filesystems and exit if all filesystems were unmounted. Busy filesystems will not be unmounted.

SEE ALSO
mount(8), autofs(5).

BUGS
There aren't any bugs (yeah, right), only unimplemented features. This is work in progress! The only currently supported filesystem types are nfs and symlinks. Sometimes the autofs filesystem seems to remain busy for no good reason after the daemon goes away and all filesystems are unmounted. A whole slew of missing desirable features (see TODO file). The documentation leaves a lot to be desired. Please report other bugs along with a detailed description to <autofs@linux.kernel.org>. To join this mailing list, send a message with the line "subscribe autofs" to <majordomo@linux.kernel.org>.

AUTHOR
H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com>