[-m directory map -mnt directory] ...

DESCRIPTION

     automount is a daemon that automatically mounts network filesystems when
     they are first accessed and later unmounts them when they are idle.

     automount creates a virtual filesystem mounted at one or more places in
     the client's file and directory hierarchy.  Potential server mount points
     within this virtual filesystem appear as symbolic links.  Reading a sym-
     bolic link causes automount to mount the associated remote filesystem in
     a separate hierarchy and to return the path to the real mount point as
     the target of the symlink.

     To make the "trigger" symbolic links used by automount distinguishable
     from normal symbolic links, the sticky bit is set in the mode flags for
     the link.  Programs which would normally traverse symbolic links can test
     for this bit and avoid triggering the mount.  Various parts of the sys-
     tem, including ls(1), have been modified in this way.

     Each virtual filesystem created by automount is governed by a correspond-
     ing map.  One or more maps and the location in the hierarchy where they
     are to appear may be specified on the command line with -m and -mnt:

           -m directory map

     is followed by a specification of the private mount directory where the
     actual mounts are to be established:

           -mnt actual_root

     Each map's hierarchy is rooted at the directory specified.

FILE MAPS

     A map may be file or a special map.  A file map is a file containing a
     list of entries of the form:

          location mount_options server:path

     mount_options must be a comma-separated list of options drawn from the
     options known to mount(8) and mount_nfs(8).  automount will automatically
     make available at the map's mount point the directory specified by
     server:path (as a symlink).  When the symlink is traversed, it will mount
     the server in the directory specified with -mnt and return the real mount
     point as the result of the symlink resolution.

SPECIAL MAPS

     In addition to reading files specifying mount maps, automount supports
     the ``-fstab'', ``-static'', and ``-nsl'' maps.  The ``-fstab'' and
     ``-static'' maps are derived from fstab(5) data (as provided by
     getfsent(3)).

     All mounts in fstab(5) without the ``net'' option will be made to appear

     All mounts with the ``net'' option will be mounted within the ``-fstab''
     map's filesystem using a path of the form:

          server/path

     For such mounts, the path specified in the fstab(5) entry will be
     ignored.  For example, if the fstab(5) database contained an entry for

          polaris:/Library/Fonts

     and automount was started as follows:

          automount -m /Useful -fstab -mnt /private/Useful

     then a symlink would appear in /Useful, /Useful/polaris/Library/Fonts,
     and link to /private/Useful/polaris/Library/Fonts where the filesystem is
     actually mounted when the symlink is traversed.

     The ``-nsl'' map generates its filesystem hierarchy from information gen-
     erated by NSL.  NSL "neighborhoods" are presented as directories, popu-
     lated by server entries.

     Accessing servers in the NSL hierarchy may prompt the user for authenti-
     cation.

OPTIONS

     -V      Print version and host information, then quit

     -m directory map
             Associate the specified map with the given directory. The direc-
             tory will be created if it doesn't exist.  map may be the name of
             a file, or it may be the name of a special map.  See the FILE
             MAPS and SPECIAL MAPS sections above.

     -d      Run automount in debug mode.  The program remains in the fore-
             ground and sends debugging information to standard output.

     -D type
             Log debug messages for type.  type may be "mount", "proc",
             "mount", "select", "options", "nsl", or "all".  Multiple -D
             options may be specified.

     -1      (The numeric digit ``one''.)  Modifies the ``-fstab'' and
             ``-static'' maps to do mounts "one at a time", when an actual
             mount point is traversed rather than mounting all mounts from a
             given server when the first of its mounts is referenced and
             mounted.

     -tm secs
             Set the timeout for NFS mounts to secs seconds.  The default
             value is 20 seconds.  The "mnttimeo=n" mount option overrides
             diately remounted.

             Supplying a ttl value of 0 will disable this behavior and allow
             servers to remain mounted forever.

     -s      Force all mounts at startup and never expire any mounts.

     -tcp    Mount servers using TCP if possible, otherwise using UDP (the
             default is to try UDP first, then TCP).  Per mount_nfs(8), "-T",
             "TCP", or "tcp" mount options have the same effect as specifying
             -tcp; "-U", "UDP", or "udp" mount options force the default
             behavior of trying UDP first even if -tcp is specified.

SEE ALSO

     mount(8), mount_nfs(8)

                                 March 9, 1998