NFS Services Administrator's Guide

Configuring and Administering AutoFS
Using Wildcard Characters as Shortcuts in AutoFS Maps
Chapter 3 137
The users 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 directories are physically located on
many different servers, but the directory under which the home
directories are located is called /export/home/
servername on all the
servers, the following line in the /etc/auto_home map mounts all the
users home directories from any server:
* &:/export/home/&
If the home directory of the user terry is configured in the /etc/passwd
file as /home/basil/terry, AutoFS mounts the remote directory
/export/home/basil from the server basil on the local directory
/home/basil when Terry logs in.
The line with the asterisk and ampersand must be the last line in an
indirect map. AutoFS reads the lines in the indirect map sequentially
until it finds a match for the requested local subdirectory. If asterisk (*)
matches any subdirectory, AutoFS stops reading at the line with the
asterisk.
For example, if the /etc/auto_home map contains the following lines,
* basil:/export/home/&
charlie thyme:/export/home/charlie
AutoFS attempts to mount /export/home/charlie from the host,
basil. If the asterisk is a match for charlie, AutoFS looks no further
and never reads the second line. However, if the /etc/auto_home map
contains the following lines,
charlie thyme:/export/home/charlie
* basil:/export/home/&
AutoFS mounts Charlie’s home directory from host thyme and other
home directories from host basil.