AUTOFS(8)



AUTOFS(8)                   System Manager's Manual                  AUTOFS(8)

NAME
       autofs - Service control for the automounter

SYNOPSIS
       If a SysV init script system is being used:
       /etc/init.d/autofs start|stop|restart|reload|status

       or if the systemd init system is being used:
       systemctl start|stop|restart|reload|status autofs.service

DESCRIPTION
       autofs  controls the operation of the automount(8) daemon(s) running on
       the Linux system. Usually autofs is invoked at system  boot  time  with
       the  start parameter and at shutdown time with the stop parameter. Ser-
       vice control actions can also be manually invoked by the system  admin-
       istrator to shut down, restart, reload or obtain service status.

OPERATION
       autofs   will   consult  a  configuration  file  /etc/auto.master  (see
       auto.master(5)) by default to find mount points on the system. For each
       of  those mount points automount(8) will mount and start a thread, with
       the appropriate parameters, to manage the mount point.

       /etc/init.d/autofs reload or systemctl autofs.service reload will check
       the  current  auto.master  map  against  the  current automount managed
       mounts. It will terminate those daemons or threads (depending on autofs
       version)  whose  entries  have been removed, re-read the automount maps
       for entries that have changed and start new daemons or threads for  en-
       tries that have been added.

       If  an  indirect  map is modified then the change will become effective
       immediately.  If an indirect map uses the browse option, the master map
       contains  direct mount maps or the auto.master map is modified then the
       autofs service control reload action must  be  rerun  to  activate  the
       changes.

       However,  if a map entry has offsets and is currently in use the offset
       mounts cannot be updated due to potential mount dependencies.  In  this
       case  the map entry offsets will not be updated until after the map en-
       try has expired.

       /etc/init.d/autofs status or systemctl autofs.service status will  dis-
       play  the  status of, automount(8), running or not. When using the sys-
       temd init system the status output includes somewhat  more  information
       related to the service status.

       systemctl(1)  has  more  functions than the actions mentioned here, see
       systemctl(1) for more information.

SEE ALSO
       automount(8),   autofs(5),   autofs.conf(5),    auto.master(5),    aut-
       ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5), systemctl(1).

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

                                  9 Sep 1997                         AUTOFS(8)

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