source: postlfs/config/autofs.xml@ bb06362a

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
  %general-entities;
  <!ENTITY autofs-patch-dir     "http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/daemons/autofs/v5">
  <!ENTITY autofs-download-http "http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/daemons/autofs/v5/autofs-&autofs-version;.tar.bz2">
  <!ENTITY autofs-download-ftp  "ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/daemons/autofs/v5/autofs-&autofs-version;.tar.bz2">
  <!ENTITY autofs-md5sum        "27839fe6fa8105b2b7d31bc922fd7cf6">
  <!ENTITY autofs-size          "221 KB">
  <!ENTITY autofs-buildsize     "9 MB">
  <!ENTITY autofs-time          "less than 0.1 SBU">
]>

<sect1 id="autofs" xreflabel="Autofs-&autofs-version;">
  <?dbhtml filename="autofs.html"?>

  <sect1info>
    <othername>$LastChangedBy$</othername>
    <date>$Date$</date>
  </sect1info>

  <title>Automate Mounting of File Systems</title>

  <indexterm zone="autofs">
    <primary sortas="a-Autofs">Autofs</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <sect2 role="package">
    <title>Introduction to Autofs</title>

    <para>The <application>Autofs</application> package contains userspace
    tools that work with the kernel to mount and un-mount removable file
    systems. The primary use is to mount external network file systems like
    NFS (see <xref linkend="nfs-utils"/>) or Samba (see <xref linkend="samba3"/>)
    on demand.</para>
    
    <para>It may also be useful for allowing users to mount floppies, cdroms and
    other removable storage devices without requiring the system
    administrator to mount the devices although this capability is now generally
    provided by HAL (see <xref linkend="hal"/>).  This may not be ideal for all
    installations, so be aware of the risks before implementing this feature.</para>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Package Information</bridgehead>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>Download (HTTP): <ulink url="&autofs-download-http;"/></para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Download (FTP): <ulink url="&autofs-download-ftp;"/></para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Download MD5 sum: &autofs-md5sum;</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Download size: &autofs-size;</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Estimated disk space required: &autofs-buildsize;</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Estimated build time: &autofs-time;</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Additional Downloads</bridgehead>

    <para>Recommended Patches: There are frequent patches issued
    for <application>Autofs</application>.  To get the current patches, 
    start in the same directory as the main tar file and run:</para>
        
<screen><userinput>wget &autofs-patch-dir;/patch_order-&autofs-version; &amp;&amp;
sed 's;autofs;&autofs-patch-dir;/autofs;' \
    patch_order-&autofs-version; &gt; wget-list &amp;&amp;
wget -i wget-list</userinput></screen>
    
    <para condition="html" role="usernotes">User Notes:
    <ulink url="&blfs-wiki;/autofs"/></para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="kernel" id="autofs-kernel">
    <title>Kernel Configuration</title>

    <indexterm zone="autofs autofs-kernel">
      <primary sortas="d-Automounter">Automounter</primary>
    </indexterm>

    <para>Verify that kernel support has been compiled in or built as
    modules in the following areas:</para>

<screen><literal>File systems &rArr;
    Kernel automounter version 4 support  Y or M
    Network File Systems &rArr;
        NFS file system support     Y or M (optional)
        SMB file system support     Y or M (optional)</literal></screen>

    <para>Recompile and install the new kernel, if necessary.</para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="installation">

    <title>Installation of Autofs</title>

    <para>Install <application>Autofs</application> by running the following
    commands:</para>

<screen><userinput>for f in `cat ../patch_order-&autofs-version;`; do 
  patch -Np1 -i ../$f
done &amp;&amp;
./configure --prefix=/ --mandir=/usr/share/man &amp;&amp;
make</userinput></screen>

    <para>This package does not come with a test suite.</para>

    <para>Now, as the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>make install &amp;&amp;
ln -sf  ../init.d/autofs /etc/rc.d/rcsysinit.d/S52autofs</userinput></screen>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="commands">
    <title>Command Explanations</title>

    <para><command>for f in `cat ../patch_order-&autofs-version;`; do
    patch -Np1 -i ../$f;  done</command>: This command applies all the 
    patches fetched earlier in the correct order.</para>

    <para><command>ln -sf  ../init.d/autofs 
    /etc/rc.d/rcsysinit.d/S52autofs</command>: This command sets the 
    link to properly start autofs upon boot.</para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="configuration">
    <title>Configuring Autofs</title>

    <sect3 id="autofs-config">
      <title>Config Files</title>

      <para><filename>/etc/sysconfig/autofs.conf</filename>,
      <filename>/etc/auto.master</filename>,
      <filename>/etc/auto.misc</filename>, and
      <filename>/etc/auto.net</filename></para>

      <indexterm zone="autofs autofs-config" >
        <primary sortas="e-etc-sysconfig-autofs.conf">/etc/sysconfig/autofs.conf</primary>
      </indexterm>

      <indexterm zone="autofs autofs-config">
        <primary sortas="e-etc-auto.master">/etc/auto.master</primary>
      </indexterm>

      <indexterm zone="autofs autofs-config">
        <primary sortas="e-etc-auto.misc">/etc/auto.misc</primary>
      </indexterm>

      <indexterm zone="autofs autofs-config">
        <primary sortas="e-etc-auto.net">/etc/auto.net</primary>
      </indexterm>

    </sect3>

    <sect3>
      <title>Configuration Information</title>

      <para>The installation process creates <filename>auto.master</filename>,
      <filename>auto.misc</filename>,  <filename>auto.smb</filename>, and
      <filename>auto.net</filename>. Replace the
      <filename>auto.master</filename> file with the following commands:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>mv /etc/auto.master /etc/auto.master.bak &amp;&amp;
cat &gt; /etc/auto.master &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal># Begin /etc/auto.master

/media/auto  /etc/auto.misc  --ghost
#/home        /etc/auto.home

# End /etc/auto.master</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>

      <para>This file creates a new media directory, <filename>/media/auto</filename>
      that will overlay any existing directory of the same name.  In this example,
      the file, <filename>/etc/auto.misc</filename>, has a line:</para>

<screen>cd   -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/cdrom</screen>

      <para>that will mount a cdrom as <filename>/media/auto/cd</filename> if
      that directory is accessed.  The <option>--ghost</option> option tells
      the automounter to create <quote>ghost</quote> versions (i.e. empty
      directories) of all the mount points listed in the configuration file
      regardless whether any of the file systems are actually mounted or not.
      This is very convenient and highly recommended, because it will show you
      the available auto-mountable file systems as existing directories, even
      when their file systems aren't currently mounted. Without the
      <option>--ghost</option> option, you'll have to remember the names of the
      directories. As soon as you try to access one of them, the directory will
      be created and the file system will be mounted. When the file system gets
      unmounted again, the directory is destroyed too, unless the
      <option>--ghost</option> option was given.</para>

      <note>
        <para>An alternative method would be to specify another automount
        location such as <filename
        class='directory'>/var/lib/auto/cdrom</filename> and create a
        symbolic link from <filename class='directory'>/media/cdrom</filename>
        to the automount location.</para>
      </note>

      <para>The <filename>auto.misc</filename> file must be configured to your
      working hardware. The loaded configuration file should load your cdrom
      if <filename>/dev/cdrom</filename> is active or it can be edited to
      match your device setup.  Examples for floppies are available in the file
      and easily activated. Documentation for this file is available using the
      <command>man 5 autofs</command> command.</para>

      <para>In the second line, if enabled, a user's home directory would be
      mounted via NFS upon login.  The <filename>/etc/home.auto</filename>
      would need to exist and have an entry similar to:</para>

<screen>joe  example.org:/export/home/joe</screen>

      <para>where the directory <filename>/export/home/joe</filename> is
      exported via NFS from the system example.org.  NFS shares
      are covered on the next page.</para>

      <para>This package could also be used to mount SMB shares, however that
      feature is not configured in these instructions.  For additional
      configuration information, see the man pages for auto.master(5).  There
      are also web resources such as this <ulink
      url='http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Auto_mount_filesystems_(AUTOFS)#Config_files'>AUTOFS 
      HOWTO</ulink> available.</para>

    </sect3>

<!--
    <sect3  id="autofs-init">
      <title>Boot Script</title>


      <para>Install the <filename>/etc/rc.d/init.d/autofs</filename> mount script
      and <filename>/etc/sysconfig/autofs.conf</filename> support file included
      with the <xref linkend="bootscripts"/> package.</para>

      <indexterm zone="autofs autofs-init">
        <primary sortas="f-autofs-init">autofs</primary>
      </indexterm>

<screen role="root"><userinput>make install-autofs</userinput></screen>

      <para>The time-out variable is set in
      <filename>/etc/sysconfig/autofs.conf</filename>. The installed file sets
      a default of 60 seconds of inactivity before unmounting the device.  A
      much shorter time may be necessary to protect buffer writing to a floppy
      if users tend to remove the media prior to the timeout setting.</para>

    </sect3>
-->

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="content">
    <title>Contents</title>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>Installed Program</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed Libraries</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed Directories</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>automount</seg>
        <seg>lookup_file.so, lookup_hosts.so, lookup_multi.so,
        lookup_nisplus.so, lookup_program.so, lookup_userhome.so,
        lookup_yp.so, mount_afs.so, mount_autofs.so, mount_bind.so,
        mount_changer.so, mount_ext2.so, mount_generic.so, 
        mount_nfs.so, parse_sun.so</seg>
        <seg>/lib/autofs and /var/run/autofs</seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

    <variablelist>
      <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
      <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
      <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>

      <varlistentry id="automount">
        <term><command>automount</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>is the daemon that performs the mounting when a request is
          made for the device.</para>
          <indexterm zone="autofs automount">
            <primary sortas="b-automount">automount</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

  </sect2>

</sect1>