The auto.master map is consulted to set up automount managed
mount points when the autofs(8) script is invoked or the
automount(8) program is run. Each line describes a mount point
and refers to an autofs map describing file systems to be mounted
under the mount point.
The default location of the master map is @mapdir@/auto.master
but an alternate name may be given on the command line when
running the automounter and the default master map may changed by
setting the MASTER_MAP_NAME configuration variable in
@confdir@/autofs. If the master map name has no path then the
system Name Service Switch configuration will be consulted and
each of the sources searched in line with the rules given in the
Name Service Switch configuration.
Access to mounts in maps is governed by a key.
For direct maps the mount point is always specified as:
/-
and the key used within the direct map is the full path to the
mount point. The direct map may have multiple entries in the
master map.
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
itself present in the master map by including a line of the form:
+[maptype[,format]:]map [options]
and automount(8) will process the map according to the
specification described below for map entries. Plus map inclusion
is only permitted in file map sources. Indirect map entries must
be unique in the master map so second and subsequent entries for
an indirect mount point are ignored by automount(8).
NOTE: autofs currently does not collapse multiple slashes in
paths, so it is important to ensure paths used in maps are
correct. If unnecessary multiple slashes are present in a
path it can lead to unexpected failures such as an
inability to expire automounts. An exception to this is a
trailing slash at the end of the automount point path in
the master map which will be removed if present.
