Automounting should be explained better

[alexander@…]

There are some issues with the ​http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/postlfs/autofs.html page.

1) It doesn't tell the reader about the symlink idiom:

/media/remote_share -> /var/lib/autofs/remote_share

The issue is that the remote share is invisible (i.e., doesn't appear in the file manager or in the "ls" output) until it is automounted by autofs, while a symlink is always visible.

2) It tells the users to mount autofs on /media, which prevents them from creating subdirectories of /media manually, and may interfere with HAL.

3) It doesn't tell that the modern way to automount removable storage is with HAL (upon detection), but the only way to automount network shares (on access) is with autofs.

[bdubbs@…]

Fixed at revision 7215.

Alex, if you want a different explanation, please provide the wording you would like to see.

[bdubbs@…]

From ​http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/pipermail/blfs-book/2008-March/023333.html:

-/media /etc/auto.misc +/media/cdrom /etc/auto.misc

I can't see how this can be right. Your configuration tells autofs to create invisible subdirectories of /media/cdrom, and mount e.g. a floppy to /media/cdrom/floppy on the first access to this /media/cdrom/floppy directory.

Also, the package description says that the primary use of this package now is for networked file systems, so maybe it is a good idea to provide an example for them (and say where they are mounted).

If we are really talking about floppies and CD-ROMs (and smbfs, too), one also has to edit the mount options and add the correct iocharset and codepage parameters.

+ <para>This file mounts a new media directory but is not visible until + it is automounted by autofs. An alternative method would be to + automount into another location such as + <filename>/var/lib/autofs/cdrom</filename> and create a sysbolic + link from <filename>/media/cdrom</filename> to the other + location.</para>

This alternative method should be the default.

[bdubbs@…]

Expanded the discussion on autofs configuration at revision 7323.

Added info on the new --ghost option.

[alexander@…]

Yes, this is now fixed.