NFS Services Administrator's Guide (B.11.31.04) March 2009

When AutoFS receives a request to mount a filesystem, it calls the automountd daemon,
which mounts the requested filesystem. AutoFS mounts the filesystems at the configured
mount-points.
The automountd daemon is independent of the automount command. This separation
enables you to add, delete, or modify the AutoFS map information, without stopping
and restarting the automountd daemon. You can modify the set of mount-points by
modifying the AutoFS maps and by running the automount command to read them
and update the mount table.
If an automounted filesystem remains idle for a specified period of time (the default
is 10 minutes), AutoFS unmounts it. To change the duration, in seconds, for which a
file system is to remain mounted when not in use, use the -t option of the automount
command. For more information on the different options supported by automount,
see automount(1M) and automountd(1M).
CAUTION: You must maintain filesystems managed by AutoFS, by using the
automountd and automount utilities. Manually mounting and unmounting file
systems managed by AutoFS can cause disruptive or unpredictable results, including
but not limited to commands hanging or not returning expected results. Applications
can also fail because of their dependencies on these mounted filesystems.
Maps Overview
Maps define the mount-points that AutoFS will mount. Maps are available either locally
or through a distributed network Name Service, such as NIS or LDAP. AutoFS supports
different types of maps.
Table 3-1 lists the different types of maps supported by AutoFS.
Table 3-1 Types of AutoFS Maps
DescriptionType of Map
A master list of maps, which associates a directory with a map. The
automount command reads the master map at system startup to create the
initial set of AutoFS mounts.
Master Map
A direct map is an entry in the AutoFS master map. In a direct map, there
exists a direct association between the mount-point on a client and a directory
on the server.
Direct Map
An indirect map is an entry in the AutoFS master map. In an indirect map,
there exists an association between keys representing mount-points on the
client and directories on the server. A key is a representation of the first field
of a map entry.
Indirect Map
An executable map is a map whose entries are generated dynamically by a
program or a script. Local maps that have the execute bit set in their file
permissions will be executed by the AutoFS daemon. A direct map cannot
be made executable.
Executable Map
Maps Overview 67