Solaris 7 Extensions for NFS Mounting

Included in the Solaris 7 release are extensions to the mount and automountd command which allow for the mount request to use the public file handle instead of the MOUNT protocol. This is the same access method that the WebNFS service uses. By circumventing the MOUNT protocol, the mount can occur through a firewall. In addition, because fewer transactions need to occur between the server and client, the mount should occur much faster.

The extensions also allow for NFS URLs to be used instead of the standard pathname. Also, the -public option can be used with the mount command and the automounter maps to force the use of the public file handle.