How Autofs Starts the Navigation Process

The automount command reads the master map at system startup. Each entry in the master map is a direct map name or an indirect map name, its path, and its mount options. The specific order of the entries is not important.

Navigation Through the Master Map

Graphic shows what information is used by the automount command to mount or unmount a file system.

This figure shows that automount compares entries in the master map with entries in the mount table to generate a current list.