Provided by: autofs_5.1.8-1ubuntu3_amd64 bug

NAME

       automount - manage autofs mount points

SYNOPSIS

       automount [options] [master_map]

DESCRIPTION

       The  automount  program  is  used  to  manage  mount  points for autofs, the inlined Linux
       automounter.  automount works by reading the auto.master(5) map and sets up  mount  points
       for  each entry in the master map allowing them to be automatically mounted when accessed.
       The file systems are then automatically umounted after a period of inactivity.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print brief help on program usage.

       -p, --pid-file
              Write the pid of the daemon to the specified file.

       -t <seconds>, --timeout <seconds>
              Set the global minimum timeout, in seconds, until directories  are  unmounted.  The
              default  is  10  minutes.  Setting the timeout to zero disables umounts completely.
              The internal program default is 10 minutes, but the default installed configuration
              overrides  this  and  sets  the  timeout to 5 minutes to be consistent with earlier
              autofs releases.

       -M <seconds>, --master-wait <seconds>
              Set the maximum time to wait for the master map to become available if it cannot be
              read at program start.

       -n <seconds>, --negative-timeout <seconds>
              Set the default timeout for caching failed key lookups. The default is 60 seconds.

       -v, --verbose
              Enables  logging  of  general  status  and progress messages for all autofs managed
              mounts.

       -d, --debug
              Enables logging of general status  and  progress  messages  as  well  as  debugging
              messages for all autofs managed mounts.

       -Dvariable=value, --define variable=value
              Define  a  global  macro  substitution variable. Global definitions are over-ridden
              macro definitions of the same name specified in mount entries.

       -S, --systemd-service
              Used when running the automounter as a systemd service to ensure log  entry  format
              is consistent with the log entry format when running as a daemon.

       -f, --foreground
              Run the daemon in the foreground and log to stderr instead of syslog."

       -r, --random-multimount-selection
              Enables  the use of random selection when choosing a host from a list of replicated
              servers.

       -m, --dumpmaps [<map type> <map name>]
              With no parameters, list information about the configured  automounter  maps,  then
              exit.

              If the dumpmaps option is given and is followed by two parameters, "<map type> <map
              name>" then simple "<key, value>" pairs that would be read in by  a  map  read  are
              printed  to  stdout  if  the  given  map  type  and  map  name are found in the map
              configuration.

              If the map is an LDAP map and there is more than one map of same name in  different
              base dns only the first map encountered by autofs will be listed. Similarly, if the
              map is a file map and there is more than one map of  the  same  name  in  different
              directories, only the first map encountered will be listed.

              If  the  map  type  is  an  old style multi-map and any one of the map names in the
              multi-map entry matches the given map name the entries that would be used by autofs
              for the whole multi-map will be listed.

       -O, --global-options
              Allows  the  specification of global mount options used for all master map entries.
              These options will either replace or be appended to options given in a  master  map
              entry depending on the APPEND_OPTIONS configuration setting.

       -V, --version
              Display the version number, then exit.

       -l, --set-log-priority priority path [path,...]
              Set  the  daemon  log  priority  to  the specified value.  Valid values include the
              numbers 0-7, or the strings emerg, alert, crit,  err,  warning,  notice,  info,  or
              debug.  Log level debug will log everything, log levels info, warn (or warning), or
              notice with enable the daemon verbose logging.  Any  other  level  will  set  basic
              logging.  Note  that  enabling  debug  or  verbose  logging  in  the  autofs global
              configuration will override dynamic log level  changes.  For  example,  if  verbose
              logging  is  set  in  the  configuration  then  attempting  to set logging to basic
              logging, by using alert, crit,  err  or  emerg  won't  stop  the  verbose  logging.
              However,  setting  logging  to  debug will lead to everything (debug logging) being
              logged witch can then also be disabled, returning the daemon  to  verbose  logging.
              This  option  can be specified to change the logging priority of an already running
              automount process.

              The path argument corresponds to the automounted path  name  as  specified  in  the
              master map.

       -C, --dont-check-daemon
              Don't check if the daemon is currently running (see NOTES).

       -F, --force
              Force  an  unlink  umount  of existing mounts under configured autofs managed mount
              points  during  startup.  This  can  cause  problems  for  processes  with  working
              directories within these mounts (see NOTES).

       -U, --force-exit
              Force  an  unlink  umount  of existing mounts under configured autofs managed mount
              points and exit rather than continuing the startup. This  can  cause  problems  for
              processes with working directories within these mounts (see NOTES).

ARGUMENTS

       automount takes one optional argument, the name of the master map to use.

       master_map
              Location  for  autofs  master  map that defines autofs managed mount points and the
              mount maps they will use. The default is auto.master.

NOTES

       If the automount daemon catches a USR1 signal, it will umount all currently unused  autofs
       managed mounted file systems and continue running (forced expire).  If it catches the TERM
       signal it will umount all unused autofs managed mounted file systems and exit if there are
       no remaining busy file systems. If autofs has been compiled with the option to ignore busy
       mounts on exit it will exit leaving any busy mounts in place otherwise busy  file  systems
       will not be umounted and autofs will not exit.  Alternatively, if autofs has been compiled
       with the option to enable forced shutdown then a USR2 signal to the daemon will cause  all
       mounts  to be umounted and any busy mounts to be forcibly umounted, including autofs mount
       point directories (summary execution). Note that the forced umount is an unlink  operation
       and  the  actual  umount  will  not  happen  in  the  kernel until active file handles are
       released.  The daemon also responds to a HUP signal which triggers an update of  the  maps
       for each mount point.

       If  any autofs mount point directories are busy when the daemon is sent an exit signal the
       daemon will not exit. The exception to this is if autofs has  been  built  with  configure
       options  to  either ignore busy mounts at exit or force umount at exit. If the ignore busy
       mounts at exit option is used the filesystems will be left in a catatonic (non-functional)
       state  and  can  be manually umounted when they become unused. If the force umount at exit
       option is used the filesystems will be umounted but the mount will not be released by  the
       kernel until they are no longer in use by the processes that held them busy.  If automount
       managed filesystems are found mounted when autofs is started they will be recovered unless
       they are no longer present in the map in which case they need to umounted manually.

       If  the  option  to  disable  the check to see if the daemon is already running is used be
       aware that autofs currently may not function correctly  for  certain  types  of  automount
       maps.  The  mounts  of  the  separate  daemons  might  interfere  with  one  another.  The
       implications of running multiple daemon instances needs to be checked and tested before we
       can say this is supported.

       If the option to force an unlink of mounts at startup is used then processes whose working
       directory is within unlinked automounted directories will not get the correct pwd from the
       system.  This  is  because, after the mount is unlinked from the mount tree, anything that
       needs to walk back up the mount tree to construct a path, such as getcwd(2) and  the  proc
       filesystem  /proc/<pid>/cwd,  cannot  work  because  the  point  from  which  the  path is
       constructed has been detached from the mount tree.

SEE ALSO

       autofs(5), autofs(8), autofs.conf(5), auto.master(5), mount(8), autofs_ldap_auth.conf(5).

BUGS

       Don't know, I've fixed everything I know about.

       The documentation could be better.

       Please report other bugs along with a detailed  description  to  <autofs@vger.kernel.org>.
       Visit http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#autofs for information about the list.

AUTHOR

       H. Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.

                                           12 Apr 2006                               AUTOMOUNT(8)