On 12/11/10 10:47 AM, Tim wrote: > On Fri, 2010-11-12 at 14:30 +0000, Timothy Murphy wrote: >> What exactly is the advantage of using autofs >> over an entry or entries in /etc/fstab ? > Autofs only mounts the device when you/something requests access to the > mount point. fstab will try mounting it at boot time, unless you add a > noauto parameter. It's somewhat easier to add non-default options to > fstab file, than tuning autofs to your requirements. Always-mounted > network shares can be a problem if they're not reachable when you boot > up. > >> Incidentally, the sample /etc/auto.master in Fedora-14 >> ends with the line >> +auto.master >> but I've been unable to find any explanation of this. > See man auto.master > > For indirect maps access is by using the path scheme: > > /mount-point/key > > where mount-point is one of the entries listed in the master map. The > key is a single directory component and is matched against entries in > the map given in the entry (See autofs(5)). > > Additionally, a map may be included from its source as if it were it- > self present in the master map by including a line of the form: + [map- > type,format:]map[options] and automount(8) will process the map accord- > ing to the specification described below for map entries. > > That sort-of explains it, even if not very understandable. > It's basically a throwback to NIS, Sun's Network Information Service. The idea is that NIS (formerly Yellow Pages) maintains these maps as a distributed database so the network admin can more easily configure them. The whole thing is a PITA unless you really need it, which on a single locally-administered desktop you don't. poc -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
