NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B.11.31.02) January 2008

when the directory is mounted the next time. However, if you change the local directory
name in the direct or indirect map, or if you change the master map, these changes do not
take effect until you run the automount command to force AutoFS to reread its maps.
Updating from Automounter to AutoFS
Automounter is a service that automatically mounts fileystems on reference. The service enables
you to access the filesystems without taking on the superuser role and use the mount command.
All filesystems appear to be immediately and continuously available.
Starting with HP-UX 11i v2, Automounter is no longer supported. HP recommends that you
update to AutoFS. Updating to AutoFS offers the following advantages:
• AutoFS can be used to mount any type of fileystem.
• Automounter mounted the directories mounted under /tmp_mnt and created symbolic
links from the configured mount-points to the actual ones on /tmp_mnt. In AutoFS, the
configured mount-points are the actual mount-points.
• Automounter had to be killed and restarted when you wanted to modify maps. In AutoFS,
you need not stop AutoFS when you modify the maps. Run the automount command after
modifying the map for the change to take effect.
NOTE: Updating from Automounter to AutoFS does not require any user intervention.
The following steps are performed automatically to update all users from the Automounter
configuration to AutoFS:
1. In the /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf file, the AUTOFS variable is set to 1.
2. Any options you had specified in the AUTO_OPTIONS variable are copied to either the
AUTO_OPTIONS or the AUTOMOUNTD_OPTIONS variable. Obsolete options are removed.
Table 3-2 lists the options of the old automount command and the equivalent AutoFS
command options. It also indicates which automount options are not supported in AutoFS.
Table 3-2 Old Automount Command-Line Options Used By AutoFS
PurposeEquivalent AutoFS command option
Old automount Option
To assign value to the environment
variable.
automountd -Dvariable = value-Dvariable = value
To use master_file as local master
map.
automount -fmaster_file-fmaster_file
To automount directories under
mount_directory instead of
/tmp_mnt.
Obsolete with AutoFS.
-Mmount_directory
To ignore NIS auto.master map.
Obsolete with AutoFS.
-m
To allow automounts only of
previously mounted target
filesystems.
Obsolete with AutoFS.
-n
To enable automount tracing.automountd -T-T
To specify time before unmounting
idle directories.
automount -tduration-tlduration
To specify interval between mount
attempts.
Obsolete with AutoFS.
-tminterval
To specify interval between unmount
attempts.
Obsolete with AutoFS.
-twinterval
To specify the Verbose mode.
automount -vautomountd -v-v
62 Configuring and Administering AutoFS