Enhanced AutoFS Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering AutoFS
Mounting a Remote Directory
Chapter 336
/usr/sbin/automount
The local directory that you configure as the mount point should be
empty or non-existent. AutoFS creates the non-existent directories
between the root directory and the configured mount point. If the local
directory that you configured as the mount point is not empty, the local
files or directories in it are hidden and inaccessible while the
automounted file system is mounted over it.
WARNING Do not automount a remote directory on a local directory that is
a symbolic link.
If you are using NIS to manage your AutoFS maps, you need to
be careful of situations where the NIS server is also a server
from which file systems are automounted. If the mount point
specified by the NIS map is the same as the actual source
directory on the server, AutoFS may attempt to mount the
source directory over itself when a user accesses the mount
point on the NIS server. This may cause the directory to become
unavailable.
The mount options that you can specify in the AutoFS maps are the same
ones that you use for the type of file system you attempt to automount.
For more information on the mount options, see the “Changing the
Default Mount Options” section of NFS Services Administrator’s Guide.
You cannot use the bg option for an automounted directory. The mount
options configured in the direct map override the options in the master
map if there is a conflict.
You can configure all your direct automounts in the same map. Many
users use the file name, /etc/auto_direct, for their direct map. If you
plan to use NIS to manage your AutoFS maps, you can have only one
direct map in your configuration. If you plan to use NIS to manage your
AutoFS maps, and your file system does not allow file names longer than
14 characters, restrict the map name to 10 characters or fewer.
If the direct map name in the AutoFS master map begins with a slash (/),
it is a local file for AutoFS. If the direct map does not contain a slash,
AutoFS uses the Name Service Switch to determine whether it is a file or
an NIS map. See the “Configuring the Name Service Switch” chapter of
NFS Services Administrator’s Guide.