NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B1031-90072, March 2011)

Including a Map in Another Map
If you want your map to refer to an external map, you can do so by including the external map in
your map. The entries in the external map are read as if they are part of your map.
To include the contents of an AutoFS map in another AutoFS map, add a plus (+) sign before the
map name, as in the following example:
# /etc/auto_home file
# local mount-point mount options remote server:directory
basil -nosuid basil:/export/home/basil
+auto_new
Assume that the /etc/auto_home map is listed in the master map with the following line:
/home /etc/auto_home
If a user, whose home directory is in /home/basil, logs in, AutoFS mounts the
/export/home/basil directory, from the host, basil.
If a user, whose home directory is in /home/sage, /home/thyme, or any subdirectory of /home
other than basil, logs in, AutoFS consults the auto_home map for information on mounting the
user’s home directory.
The plus (+) sign instructs AutoFS to look up a different map for the information it needs to mount
the directory. If the map name following the plus sign begins with a slash, AutoFS assumes that it
is a local file. If the map name contains no slashes, AutoFS uses the Name Service Switch to
determine whether it is a file, NIS map, or an LDAP map.
You can include an AutoFS map inside a local file, but not inside an NIS or LDAP map.
For more information on including a map in another map, see automount(1M).
Creating a Hierarchy of AutoFS Maps
Hierarchical AutoFS maps provide a framework that enables you to organize large exported
filesystems. Together with NIS, which allows you to share information across administrative domains,
hierarchical maps enable you to decentralize the maintenance of a shared namespace.
Sample Map Hierarchy
In the following example, an organization consisting of many departments, wants to organize a
shared automounted directory structure. The shared top-level directory is called /org. The /org
directory contains several subdirectories, which are listed in the auto_org map. Each department
administers its own map for its subdirectory.
The AutoFS master map needs only a single entry for /org as in the following example:
# auto_master map
# Directory Map Name
/org auto_org
The auto_org map appears similar to the following:
finance -fstype=autofs auto_finance
marketing -fstype=autofs auto_marketing
legal -fstype=autofs auto_legal
research -fstype=autofs auto_research
eng -fstype=autofs auto_eng
The engineering department map, auto_eng, appears similar to the following:
releases bigiron:/export/releases
tools mickey,minnie:/export/tools
source -fstype=autofs auto_eng_source
projects -fstype=autofs auto_eng_projects
A user in the blackhole project within engineering can use the following path:
/org/eng/projects/blackhole
72 Configuring and Administering AutoFS