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

Consider the following guidelines while using wildcard characters as shortcuts:
• Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard character in an indirect map, to represent the local
subdirectory if you want the local subdirectory to be the same as the remote system
name, or the remote subdirectory.
You cannot use the asterisk (*) wildcard in a direct map.
• Use an ampersand (&) in a direct or an indirect map as the remote system name
or the remote subdirectory. The entry in the local directory name field replaces
the ampersand. If you have used an asterisk to represent the local subdirectory,
then the entry that replaces the asterisk (*) in the local subdirectory field also
replaces the ampersand (&) in the remote system name, or remote subdirectory
field.
Notes on Using Wildcard Characters as Shortcuts in Maps
The following example illustrates the automounting of the users’ home directories. The
home directories are physically located on the NFS server, basil, under the remote
directory /export/home. On the local NFS client, the home directories are mounted
under /home.
The following entry from the /etc/auto_master master map lists the indirect map,
/etc/auto_home:
# /etc/auto_master file
# local mount-point map name mount options
/home /etc/auto_home -nosuid
The following line from the /etc/auto_home indirect map mounts the user's home
directories on demand:
# /etc/auto_home file
# local mount-point mount options remote server:directory
* basil:/export/home/&
The user's home directory is configured in the /etc/passwd file as /home/username.
For example, the home directory of the user terry is /home/terry. When Terry logs
in, AutoFS looks up the /etc/auto_home map and substitutes terry for both the
asterisk and the ampersand. AutoFS then mounts Terry’s home directory from
/export/home/terry on the server, basil, to /home/terry on the local NFS client.
You can use the ampersand character to represent both the remote server and the
remote subdirectory, in the same line of the indirect map. For example, if the user’s
home directory is physically located on many different servers, but the directory under
which the home directory is located is called /export/home/servername on all the
servers, the following line in the /etc/auto_home map mounts all the user's home
directories from any server:
* &:/export/home/&
Using Wildcard Characters as Shortcuts in AutoFS Maps 91