AUTO.MASTER(5)



AUTO.MASTER(5)                File Formats Manual               AUTO.MASTER(5)

NAME
       auto.master - Master Map for automounter consulted by autofs

DESCRIPTION
       The  auto.master  map  is  consulted  to set up automount managed mount
       points when the autofs(8) script is invoked or the automount(8) program
       is  run.  Each line describes a mount point and refers to an autofs map
       describing file systems to be mounted under the mount point.

       The default location of the master map is /etc/auto.master but  an  al-
       ternate  name  may  be given on the command line when running the auto-
       mounter  and  the  default  master  map  may  changed  by  setting  the
       MASTER_MAP_NAME  configuration variable in /etc/default/autofs.  If the
       master map name has no path then the system Name Service Switch config-
       uration will be consulted and each of the sources searched in line with
       the rules given in the Name Service Switch configuration.

       Access to mounts in maps is governed by a key.

       For direct maps the mount point is always specified as:

       /-

       and the key used within the direct map is the full path  to  the  mount
       point. The direct map may have multiple entries in the master map.

       For indirect maps access is by using the path scheme:

       /mount-point/key

       where  mount-point  is one of the entries listed in the master map. The
       key is a single directory component and is matched against  entries  in
       the map given in the entry (See autofs(5)).

       Additionally,  a  map may be included from its source as if it were it-
       self present in the master map by including a line of the form:

       +[maptype[,format]:]map [options]

       and automount(8) will process the map according  to  the  specification
       described  below  for map entries. Plus map inclusion is only permitted
       in file map sources.  Indirect map entries must be unique in the master
       map  so  second  and subsequent entries for an indirect mount point are
       ignored by automount(8).

       NOTE:  autofs currently does not collapse multiple slashes in paths, so
              it is important to ensure paths used in maps are correct. If un-
              necessary multiple slashes are present in a path it can lead  to
              unexpected  failures  such as an inability to expire automounts.
              An exception to this is a trailing slash at the end of the auto-
              mount  point  path  in  the  master map which will be removed if
              present.

FORMAT
       Master map entries have three fields separated by an  arbitrary  number
       of spaces or tabs. Lines beginning with # are comments. The first field
       is the mount point described above and the second field is the name  of
       the map to be consulted for the mount point followed by the third field
       which contains options to be applied to all entries in the map.

       The format of a master map entry is:

       mount-point [map-type[,format]:]map [options]

       mount-point
              Base location for the autofs filesystem to be mounted.  For  in-
              direct  maps  this  directory will be created (as with mkdir -p)
              and is removed when the autofs filesystem is umounted.

       map-type
              Type of map used for this mount point.  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 (everything  be-
                     sides  the key) on stdout if successful.  Optionally, the
                     keyword exec may be used as  a  synonym  for  program  to
                     avoid  confusion  with amd formatted maps mount type pro-
                     gram.

              yp     The map is a NIS (YP) database.

              nisplus
                     The map is a NIS+ database.

              hesiod The map is a hesiod database  whose  filsys  entries  are
                     used for maps.

              ldap or ldaps
                     The  map is stored in an LDAP directory. If ldaps is used
                     the appropriate certificate must  be  configured  in  the
                     LDAP client.

              multi  This  map  type allows the specification of multiple maps
                     separated by "--". These maps are searched  in  order  to
                     resolve key lookups.

              dir    This map type can be used at + master map including nota-
                     tion. The contents of files under given directory are in-
                     cluded to the master map. The name of file to be included
                     must be ended with ".autofs". A file will be  ignored  if
                     its  name is not ended with the suffix. In addition a dot
                     file, a file which name is started with "." is  also  ig-
                     nored.

       format
              Format  of  the  map  data; currently the formats recognized are
              sun, which is a subset of the Sun automounter map  format,  hes-
              iod,  for  hesiod  filesys entries and amd for amd formatted map
              entries.  If the format is left unspecified, it defaults to  sun
              for  all  map  types  except hesiod unless it is a top level amd
              mount that has a configuration entry for the mount  point  path,
              in which case the format used is amd.

       map
              Name  of  the map to use.  This is an absolute UNIX pathname for
              maps of types file, dir, or program, and the name of a  database
              in the case for maps of type yp, nisplus, or hesiod or the dn of
              an LDAP entry for maps of type ldap.

       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 and are passed to au-
              tomount (8).

              The sun format supports the following options:

              -Dvariable=value
                     Replace variable with value in map substitutions.

              -strict
                     Treat errors when mounting file systems as fatal. This is
                     important when multiple file systems  should  be  mounted
                     (`multimounts').  If this option is given, no file system
                     is mounted at all if at least one file  system  can't  be
                     mounted.

              [no]browse
                     This  is an autofs specific option that is a pseudo mount
                     option and so is given without a leading dash. Use of the
                     browse option pre-creates mount point directories for in-
                     direct mount maps so the map keys can be seen in a direc-
                     tory  listing  without  being mounted. Use of this option
                     can cause performance problem  if  the  indirect  map  is
                     large  so  it  should  be used with caution. The internal
                     program default is to enable  browse  mode  for  indirect
                     mounts  but the default installed configuration overrides
                     this by setting BROWSE_MODE to "no" because of the poten-
                     tial  performance  problem.  This option does the same as
                     the deprecated --ghost option, the browse option is  pre-
                     ferred  because  it  is  used by other autofs implementa-
                     tions.

              nobind This is an autofs specific option that is a pseudo  mount
                     option  and so is given without a leading dash. It may be
                     used either in the master map entry (so  it  effects  all
                     the  map  entries) or with individual map entries to pre-
                     vent bind mounting of local NFS filesystems.  For  direct
                     mount  maps  the option is only effective if specified on
                     the first direct map entry and is applied to  all  direct
                     mount  maps  in the master map. It is ignored if given on
                     subsequent direct map entries. It may be used on individ-
                     ual  map entries of both types. Preventing bind mounts of
                     NFS file systems can no  longer  be  done  by  using  the
                     "port=" option, the nobind option must be used instead.

              symlink
                     This  option makes bind mounting use a symlink instead of
                     an actual bind mount. It is  an  autofs  specific  option
                     that  is  a pseudo mount option and so is given without a
                     leading dash. It may be used with  indirect  map  entries
                     only, either in the master map (so it effects all map en-
                     tries) or with individual map entries. The option is  ig-
                     nored  for  direct  mounts  and non-root offest mount en-
                     tries.

              strictexpire
                     Use a strict expire policy for this automount. Using this
                     option  means  that  last use of autofs directory entries
                     will not be updated during path walks so that  mounts  in
                     an  automount won't be kept mounted by applications scan-
                     ning the mount tree. Note that  this  doesn't  completely
                     resolve  the  problem of expired automounts being immedi-
                     ately re-mounted due to application accesses triggered by
                     the expire itself.

              slave, private or shared
                     This option allows mount propagation of bind mounts to be
                     set to slave, private or shared. This option defaults  to
                     slave if no option is given. When using multi-mounts that
                     have bind mounts the bind mount will have the same  prop-
                     erties  as  its  parent  which  is  commonly  propagation
                     shared. And if  the  mount  target  is  also  propagation
                     shared this can lead to a deadlock when attempting to ac-
                     cess the offset mounts. When  this  happens  an  unwanted
                     offset mount is propagated back to the target file system
                     resulting in a deadlock since the automount target is it-
                     self  an (unwanted) automount trigger.  This option is an
                     autofs pseudo mount option that can be used in the master
                     map only.

              -r, --random-multimount-selection
                     Enables  the use of random selection when choosing a host
                     from a list of replicated servers. This option is applied
                     to  this  mount  only, overriding the global setting that
                     may be specified on the command line.

              -w, --use-weight-only
                     Use only specified weights  for  server  selection  where
                     more than one server is specified in the map entry. If no
                     server weights are given then each available server  will
                     be tried in the order listed, within proximity.

              -t, --timeout <seconds>
                     Set  the  expire timeout for map entries. This option can
                     be used to override the global default  given  either  on
                     the command line or in the configuration.

              -n, --negative-timeout <seconds>
                     Set  the timeout for caching failed key lookups. This op-
                     tion can be used to override the global default given ei-
                     ther on the command line or in the configuration.

              --mode <octal_mode>
                     Set  the directory mode for the base location of the aut-
                     ofs mount point.  If this option is  given,  autofs  will
                     chmod that directory with this mode.

BUILTIN MAP -hosts
       If  "-hosts"  is  given as the map then accessing a key under the mount
       point which corresponds to a hostname will allow access to the  exports
       of  that host. The hosts map cannot be dynamically updated and requires
       a HUP signal to be sent to the daemon for it to check hosts for an  up-
       date.  Due  to possible hierarchic dependencies within a mount tree, it
       might not be completely updated during the HUP signal processing.

       For example, with an entry in the master map of /net  -hosts  accessing
       /net/myserver  will  mount  exports  from myserver on directories below
       /net/myserver.

       NOTE: mounts done from a hosts  map  will  be  mounted  with  the  "no-
       suid,nodev,intr" options unless overridden by explicitly specifying the
       "suid", "dev" or "nointr" options in the master map entry.

LDAP MAPS
       If the map type ldap is specified the mapname is of the form [//server-
       name/]dn,  where the optional servername is the name of the LDAP server
       to query, and dn is the Distinguished Name of a subtree to  search  for
       map entries.  The old style ldap:servername:mapname is also understood.
       Alternatively, the type can be obtained from the  Name  Service  Switch
       configuration, in which case the map name alone must be given.

       If  no schema is set in the autofs configuration then autofs will check
       each of the commonly used schema for a valid entry and if one is  found
       it will be used for subsequent lookups.

       There are three common schemas in use:

       nisMap
              Entries in the nisMap schema are nisObject objects in the speci-
              fied subtree, where the cn attribute is the  key  (the  wildcard
              key is "/"), and the nisMapEntry attribute contains the informa-
              tion used by the automounter.

       automountMap
              The automountMap schema has two variations that  differ  in  the
              attribute  used  for  the  map  key. Entries in the automountMap
              schema are automount objects in the specified subtree, where the
              cn  or  automountKey attribute (depending on local usage) is the
              key (the wildcard key is "/"), and the automountInformation  at-
              tribute  contains  the information used by the automounter. Note
              that the cn attribute is case insensitive.

       The object classes and attributes used for accessing automount maps  in
       LDAP  can be changed by setting entries in the autofs configuration lo-
       cated in /etc/default/autofs.conf.

       NOTE:  If a schema is given in the configuration then  all  the  schema
              configuration  values must be set, any partial schema specifica-
              tion will be ignored.

       For amd format maps a different schema is used:

       amdMap
              The amdmap schema contains attributes amdmapName, amdmapKey  and
              amdmapValue where amdmapName contains the name of the containing
              map, amdmapKey contains the map key and amdmapValue contains the
              map entry.

LDAP AUTHENTICATION, ENCRYPTED AND CERTIFIED CONNECTIONS
       LDAP  authenticated  binds, TLS encrypted connections and certification
       may be used by setting appropriate values in the autofs  authentication
       configuration  file  and  configuring  the LDAP client with appropriate
       settings.     The    default    location    of     this     file     is
       /etc/autofs_ldap_auth.conf.

       If this file exists it will be used to establish whether TLS or authen-
       tication should be used.

       An example of this file is:

         <?xml version="1.0" ?>
         <autofs_ldap_sasl_conf
                 usetls="yes"
                 tlsrequired="no"
                 authrequired="no"
                 authtype="DIGEST-MD5"
                 user="xyz"
                 secret="abc"
         />

       If TLS encryption is to be used the location of the Certificate Author-
       ity certificate must be set within the LDAP client configuration in or-
       der to validate the server certificate. If, in  addition,  a  certified
       connection  is  to  be used then the client certificate and private key
       file locations must also be configured within the LDAP client.

       In OpenLDAP these may be configured in the ldap.conf  file  or  in  the
       per-user configuration. For example, it may be sensible to use the sys-
       tem wide configuration for the location of  the  Certificate  Authority
       certificate  and set the location of the client certificate and private
       key in the per-user configuration. The location of these files and  the
       configuration  entry requirements is system dependent so the documenta-
       tion for your installation will need to be consulted to get further in-
       formation.

       See autofs_ldap_auth.conf (5) for more information.

EXAMPLE
         /-        auto.data
         /home     /etc/auto.home
         /mnt      yp:mnt.map

       This  will  generate two mountpoints for /home and /mnt and install di-
       rect mount triggers for each entry in the direct mount  map  auto.data.
       All  accesses  to  /home  will  lead  to the consultation of the map in
       /etc/auto.home and all accesses  to  /mnt  will  consult  the  NIS  map
       mnt.map.   All  accesses  to  paths  in  the map auto.data will trigger
       mounts when they are accessed and the Name Service Switch configuration
       will be used to locate the source of the map auto.data.

       To  avoid  making  edits to /etc/auto.master, /etc/auto.master.d may be
       used.  Files in that directory  must  have  a  ".autofs"  suffix,  e.g.
       /etc/auto.master.d/extra.autofs.   Such files contain lines of the same
       format as the auto.master file, e.g.

         /foo    /etc/auto.foo
         /baz    yp:baz.map

SEE ALSO
       automount(8),    autofs(5),     autofs(8),     autofs.conf(5),     aut-
       ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5).

AUTHOR
       This  manual  page was written by Christoph Lameter <chris@waterf.org>,
       for the Debian GNU/Linux system. Edited by <hpa@transmeta.com> and  Ian
       Kent <raven@themaw.net> .

                                  11 Apr 2006                   AUTO.MASTER(5)

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