Understanding map modifications

You can modify automount maps at any time. However, this does not guarantee that all your modifications will take effect the next time automount mounts a filesystem. That depends on what map you modify and what kind of modification you introduce.

master map

automount consults the master map only at startup time. A modification to the master map will take effect only the next time you restart automount.

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NOTE: Rebooting your machine is the safest way of restarting automount.

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indirect maps

Entries can be modified, deleted, or added to indirect maps and the change will take effect next time the map is used, which is the next time a mount occurs.

direct maps

Each entry in a direct map is an automount mount point and automount only mounts its daemon at these mount points at startup. Therefore, adding or deleting an entry in a direct map will take effect only the next time you restart automount. Existing entries, however, can be modified (for example, changing mount options or server names, but not names of mount points) while automount is running, and these will take effect when the changed entry is next mounted, because automount consults the direct maps whenever a mount has to be done.

For instance, suppose you modify the file /etc/auto.direct so that the directory /usr/src is now mounted from a different server. The new entry takes effect immediately (if /usr/src is not mounted at this time) when you try to access it. If it is mounted now, you can wait until the default unmounting takes place before you access it. If this is not satisfactory, you can unmount with the umount command; if you do, you must notify automount that the mount table has changed (see ``Stopping and restarting automount'') before accessing the directory. You can now mount the directory from the new server. However, if you wanted to delete the direct map entry containing /usr/src, you would have to restart automount for the deletion to take effect.

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NOTE: Because entries can be added to and deleted from indirect maps without restarting automount and because they do not clutter the mount table like direct maps do, indirect maps are preferable and should be used whenever possible.

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See also:

• ``Direct and indirect mounting''

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