Advanced Input Formats

The following two sections apply to both input file and command-line input formats.

Multiple Mount Locations

Multiple location fields may be specified for NFS file systems that are exported from multiple, functionally equivalent locations:

% fncreate_fs org/sales/fs altair:/sales cygnus:/sales

The automounter will attempt to choose the best server from among the alternatives provided. If several locations in the list share the same path name, they may be combined using a comma-separated list of host names:

% fncreate_fs org/sales/fs altair,cygnus:/sales

The hosts may be weighted, with the weighting factor appended to the host name as an integer in parentheses: the lower the number, the more desirable the server. The default weighting factor is zero (most desirable). Negative numbers are not allowed.

The following example illustrates one way to indicate that cygnus is the preferred server:

% fncreate_fs org/sales/fs altair(2),cygnus(1):/sales

Variable Substitution

Variable names, prefixed by $, may be used in the options or location fields of fncreate_fs. For example, a mount location may be given as:

altair:/export/$CPU

The automounter will substitute client-specific values for these variables when mounting the corresponding file systems. In the above example, $CPU is replaced by the output of uname -p; for example, sparc.