NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B.11.31.03) August 2008

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
100 Configuring and Administering AutoFS