1
.\" Linux man page by B. James Phillippe, 1997 <bryan@Terran.ORG>
3
.\" This page was written to contribute to the Linux kernel autofs
4
.\" implementation by H. Peter Anvin (1997). It is loosly based on
5
.\" the documentation for mount(8) and amd(8) Linux manpages.
7
.\" This is free documentation.
9
.TH AUTOMOUNT 8 "12 Apr 2006"
11
automount \- manage autofs mount points
13
\fBautomount\fP [\fIoptions\fP] [\fImaster_map\fP]
15
The \fBautomount\fP program is used to manage mount points for
16
autofs, the inlined Linux automounter. \fBautomount\fP works by
21
map and sets up mount points for each entry in the master map allowing
22
them to be automatically mounted when accessed. The file systems are
23
then automatically umounted after a period of inactivity.
27
Print brief help on program usage.
29
.I "\-p, \-\-pid-file"
30
Write the pid of the daemon to the specified file.
33
Set the global minimum timeout, in seconds, until directories
34
are unmounted. The default is 10 minutes. Setting the timeout
35
to zero disables umounts completely.
37
.I "\-n <seconds>, \-\-negative\-timeout <seconds>"
38
Set the default timeout for caching failed key lookups. The default is 60 seconds.
41
Enables logging of general status and progress messages for all
42
autofs managed mounts.
45
Enables logging of general status and progress messages as well as
46
debuging messages for all autofs managed mounts.
48
.I "\-Dvariable=value"
49
Define a global macro substitution variable. Global definitions
50
are over-ridden macro definitions of the same name specified in
53
.I "\-f, \-\-foreground"
54
Run the daemon in the forground and log to stderr instead of syslog."
56
.I "\-r, \-\-random-multimount-selection"
57
Enables the use of ramdom selection when choosing a host from a
58
list of replicated servers.
60
.I "\-O, \-\-global-options"
61
Allows the specification of global mount options used for all master
62
map entries. These options will either replace or be appened to options
63
given in a master map entry depending on the APPEND_OPTIONS configuration
67
Display the version number, then exit.
69
.I "\-l, \-\-set-log-priority priority path [path,...]"
70
Set the daemon log priority to the specified value. Valid values include
71
the numbers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice,
72
info, or debug. Log level debug will log everything, log levels info, warn
73
(or warning), or notice with enable the daemon verbose logging. Any other
74
level will set basic logging. Note that enabling debug or verbose
75
logging in the autofs global configuration will override dynamic log level
76
changes. For example, if verbose logging is set in the configuration then
77
attempting to set logging to basic logging, by using alert, crit, err
78
or emerg won't stop the verbose logging. However, setting logging to debug
79
will lead to everything (debug logging) being logged witch can then also
80
be disabled, returning the daemon to verbose logging. This option can be
81
specified to change the logging priority of an already running automount
84
The \fIpath\fP argument corresponds to the automounted
85
path name as specified in the master map.
87
.I "\-C, \-\-dont-check-daemon"
88
Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).
91
Force an unlink umount of existing mounts under autofs managed mount points
92
during startup. This can cause problems for processes with working directories
93
within these mounts (see NOTES).
95
\fBautomount\fP takes one optional argument, the name of the master map to
99
Location for autofs master map that defines autofs managed mount points
100
and the mount maps they will use. The default is
106
If the \fBautomount\fP daemon catches a USR1 signal, it will umount all
107
currently unused autofs managed mounted file systems and continue running
108
(forced expire). If it catches the TERM signal it will umount
109
all unused autofs managed mounted file systems and exit if there are
110
no remaining busy file systems. If autofs has been compiled with the
111
option to ignore busy mounts on exit it will exit leaving any busy
112
mounts in place otherwise busy file systems will not be umounted
113
and autofs will not exit.
114
Alternatively, if autofs has been compiled with the option to enable
115
forced shutdown then a USR2 signal to the daemon will cause all
116
mounts to be umounted and any busy mounts to be forcibly umounted,
117
including autofs mount point directories (summary execution). Note
118
that the forced umount is an unlink operation and the actual umount
119
will not happen in the kernel until active file handles are released.
120
The daemon also responds to a HUP signal which triggers an update of
121
the maps for each mount point.
123
If any autofs mount point directories are busy when the daemon is sent
124
an exit signal the daemon will not exit. The exception to this is
125
if autofs has been built with configure options to either ignore busy
126
mounts at exit or force umount at exit. If the ignore busy mounts at
127
exit option is used the filesystems will be left in a catatonic
128
(non-functional) state and can be manually umounted when they become
129
unused. If the force umount at exit option is used the filesystems
130
will be umounted but the mount will not be released by the kernel
131
until they are no longer in use by the processes that held them busy.
132
If automount managed filesystems are found mounted when autofs is
133
started they will be recoverd unless they are no longer present in
134
the map in which case they need to umounted manually.
136
If the option to disable the check to see if the daemon is already
137
running is used be aware that autofs currently may not function correctly
138
for certain types of automount maps. The mounts of the seperate daemons
139
might interfere with one another. The implications of running multiple
140
daemon instances needs to be checked and tested before we can say this
143
If the option to force an unlink of mounts at startup is used then processes
144
whose working directory is within unlinked automounted directories will not
145
get the correct pwd from the system. This is because, after the mount is
146
unlinked from the mount tree, anything that needs to walk back up the mount
147
tree to construct a path, such as getcwd(2) and the proc filesystem
148
/proc/<pid>/cwd, cannot work because the point from which the path is
149
constructed has been detached from the mount tree.
155
.BR autofs_ldap_auth.conf (5)
157
Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.
159
The documentation could be better.
161
Please report other bugs along with a detailed description to
162
<autofs@linux.kernel.org>. For instructions on how to join the list
163
and for archives visit http://linux.kernel.org/mailman/listinfo/autofs
165
H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.