System Administration Guide: Network Services

Autofs Unmounting

The unmounting that occurs after a certain amount of idle time is from the bottom up (reverse order of mounting). If one of the directories at a higher level in the hierarchy is busy, only file systems below that directory are unmounted. During the unmounting process, any trigger nodes are removed and then the file system is unmounted. If the file system is busy, the unmount fails and the trigger nodes are reinstalled.


Caution – Caution –

Do not use the -soft option when specifying hierarchical layers. If the -soft option is used, requests to reinstall the trigger nodes can time out. The failure to reinstall the trigger nodes leaves no access to the next level of mounts. The only way to clear this problem is to have the automounter unmount all of the components in the hierarchy. The automounter can complete the unmounting either by waiting for the file systems to be automatically unmounted or by rebooting the system.