1. Managing Network File Systems in Oracle Solaris 11.4
  2. Network File System Features
  3. How Autofs Works
  4. Autofs Maps
  5. Master Autofs Map

Master Autofs Map

The auto_master map associates a directory with a map. The map is a master list that specifies all the maps that autofs should check. The following example shows the types of information that an auto_master file could contain.

Example 2-1 Sample /etc/auto_master File 

# Master map for automounter 
# 
+auto_master 
/net            -hosts           -nosuid,nobrowse 
/home           auto_home        -nobrowse 
/-              auto_direct      -ro

This example shows the generic auto_master file with one addition for the auto_direct map. Each line in the master map /etc/auto_master has the following syntax: 

mount-point map-name [mount-options]
mount-point

Full (absolute) path name of a directory. If the directory does not exist, autofs creates the directory if possible. If the directory exists and is not empty, mounting on the directory hides its contents. In this situation, autofs issues a warning.

The notation /- as a mount point indicates that this particular map is a direct map. The notation also means that no particular mount point is associated with the map.

map-name

Name of the map that autofs uses to find directions to locations, or mount information. If the name is preceded by a slash (/), autofs interprets the name as a local file. Otherwise, autofs searches for the mount information by using the search that is specified in the name-service switch configuration file (/etc/nsswitch.conf). Special maps are also used for /net. For more information, see Mount Point /net in NFS.

mount-options

An optional, comma-separated list of options that apply to the mounting of the entries that are specified in map-name, unless the entries in map-name list other options. Options for each specific type of file system are listed in the mount man page for that file system. For information about NFS-specific mount options, see the mount_nfs(8) man page. For NFS-specific mount points, the bg (background) and fg (foreground) options do not apply.

A line that begins with # is a comment. All the text that follows until the end of the line is ignored.

To split long lines into shorter ones, put a backslash (\) at the end of the line. The maximum number of characters of an entry is 1024.

Note:

If the same mount point is used in two entries, the first entry is used by the automount command. The second entry is ignored.