AUTOMOUNT(8)



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

NAME
       automount - manage autofs mount points

SYNOPSIS
       automount [options] [master_map]

DESCRIPTION
       The  automount  program  is used to manage mount points for autofs, the
       inlined  Linux   automounter.    automount   works   by   reading   the
       auto.master(5)  map and sets up mount points for each entry in the mas-
       ter map allowing them to be automatically mounted  when  accessed.  The
       file systems are then automatically umounted after a period of inactiv-
       ity.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
              Print brief help on program usage.

       -p, --pid-file
              Write the pid of the daemon to the specified file.

       -t <seconds>, --timeout <seconds>
              Set the global minimum timeout, in  seconds,  until  directories
              are unmounted. The default is 10 minutes. Setting the timeout to
              zero disables umounts completely.  The internal program  default
              is 10 minutes, but the default installed configuration overrides
              this and sets the timeout to 5 minutes  to  be  consistent  with
              earlier autofs releases.

       -M <seconds>, --master-wait <seconds>
              Set the maximum time to wait for the master map to become avail-
              able if it cannot be read at program start.

       -n <seconds>, --negative-timeout <seconds>
              Set the default timeout for caching failed key lookups. The  de-
              fault is 60 seconds.

       -v, --verbose
              Enables  logging of general status and progress messages for all
              autofs managed mounts.

       -d, --debug
              Enables logging of general status and progress messages as  well
              as debugging messages for all autofs managed mounts.

       -Dvariable=value, --define variable=value
              Define  a global macro substitution variable. Global definitions
              are over-ridden macro definitions of the same name specified  in
              mount entries.

       -S, --systemd-service
              Used when running the automounter as a systemd service to ensure
              log entry format is consistent with the log  entry  format  when
              running as a daemon.

       -f, --foreground
              Run  the  daemon  in the foreground and log to stderr instead of
              syslog."

       -r, --random-multimount-selection
              Enables the use of random selection when choosing a host from  a
              list of replicated servers.

       -m, --dumpmaps [<map type> <map name>]
              With  no parameters, list information about the configured auto-
              mounter maps, then exit.

              If the dumpmaps option is given and is followed by  two  parame-
              ters,  "<map  type> <map name>" then simple "<key, value>" pairs
              that would be read in by a map read are printed to stdout if the
              given map type and map name are found in the map configuration.

              If the map is an LDAP map and there is more than one map of same
              name in different base dns only the  first  map  encountered  by
              autofs  will  be listed. Similarly, if the map is a file map and
              there is more than one map of the same name in different  direc-
              tories, only the first map encountered will be listed.

              If the map type is an old style multi-map and any one of the map
              names in the multi-map entry matches the given map name the  en-
              tries  that would be used by autofs for the whole multi-map will
              be listed.

       -O, --global-options
              Allows the specification of global mount options  used  for  all
              master  map entries. These options will either replace or be ap-
              pended to options given in a master map entry depending  on  the
              APPEND_OPTIONS configuration setting.

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

       -l, --set-log-priority priority path [path,...]
              Set  the daemon log priority to the specified value.  Valid val-
              ues include the numbers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert,  crit,
              err,  warning,  notice, info, or debug. Log level debug will log
              everything, log levels info, warn (or warning), or  notice  with
              enable  the daemon verbose logging. Any other level will set ba-
              sic logging. Note that enabling debug or verbose logging in  the
              autofs  global  configuration  will  override  dynamic log level
              changes. For example, if verbose logging is set in the  configu-
              ration then attempting to set logging to basic logging, by using
              alert, crit, err or emerg won't stop the verbose logging. Howev-
              er, setting logging to debug will lead to everything (debug log-
              ging) being logged witch can then also  be  disabled,  returning
              the  daemon  to verbose logging. This option can be specified to
              change the logging priority  of  an  already  running  automount
              process.

              The  path  argument  corresponds to the automounted path name as
              specified in the master map.

       -C, --dont-check-daemon
              Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).

       -F, --force
              Force an unlink umount of existing mounts under  autofs  managed
              mount  points  during  startup. This can cause problems for pro-
              cesses with working directories within these mounts (see NOTES).

ARGUMENTS
       automount takes one optional argument, the name of the  master  map  to
       use.

       master_map
              Location for autofs master map that defines autofs managed mount
              points and  the  mount  maps  they  will  use.  The  default  is
              auto.master.

NOTES
       If  the automount daemon catches a USR1 signal, it will umount all cur-
       rently unused autofs managed mounted file systems and continue  running
       (forced  expire).  If it catches the TERM signal it will umount all un-
       used autofs managed mounted file systems and exit if there are  no  re-
       maining  busy file systems. If autofs has been compiled with the option
       to ignore busy mounts on exit it will exit leaving any busy  mounts  in
       place  otherwise busy file systems will not be umounted and autofs will
       not exit.  Alternatively, if autofs has been compiled with  the  option
       to  enable  forced shutdown then a USR2 signal to the daemon will cause
       all mounts to be umounted and any busy mounts to be forcibly  umounted,
       including autofs mount point directories (summary execution). Note that
       the forced umount is an unlink operation and the actual umount will not
       happen  in the kernel until active file handles are released.  The dae-
       mon also responds to a HUP signal which triggers an update of the  maps
       for each mount point.

       If  any autofs mount point directories are busy when the daemon is sent
       an exit signal the daemon will not exit. The exception to  this  is  if
       autofs  has  been  built  with  configure options to either ignore busy
       mounts at exit or force umount at exit. If the ignore  busy  mounts  at
       exit  option  is used the filesystems will be left in a catatonic (non-
       functional) state and can be manually umounted when they become unused.
       If  the  force  umount  at  exit option is used the filesystems will be
       umounted but the mount will not be released by the  kernel  until  they
       are  no  longer  in use by the processes that held them busy.  If auto-
       mount managed filesystems are found mounted when autofs is started they
       will be recovered unless they are no longer present in the map in which
       case they need to umounted manually.

       If the option to disable the check to see if the daemon is already run-
       ning  is used be aware that autofs currently may not function correctly
       for certain types of automount maps. The mounts of the separate daemons
       might  interfere with one another. The implications of running multiple
       daemon instances needs to be checked and tested before we can say  this
       is supported.

       If the option to force an unlink of mounts at startup is used then pro-
       cesses whose working directory is within unlinked automounted  directo-
       ries will not get the correct pwd from the system. This is because, af-
       ter the mount is unlinked from the mount tree, anything that  needs  to
       walk  back up the mount tree to construct a path, such as getcwd(2) and
       the proc filesystem /proc/<pid>/cwd, cannot work because the point from
       which the path is constructed has been detached from the mount tree.

SEE ALSO
       autofs(5),  autofs(8),  autofs.conf(5),  auto.master(5), mount(8), aut-
       ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5).

BUGS
       Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.

       The documentation could be better.

       Please report other bugs along with a  detailed  description  to  <aut-
       ofs@vger.kernel.org>. Visit http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#aut-
       ofs for information about the list.

AUTHOR
       H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.

                                  12 Apr 2006                     AUTOMOUNT(8)

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