AUTOFS(8) System Manager's Manual AUTOFS(8)
NAME
autofs - Service control for the automounter
SYNOPSIS
If a SysV init script system is being used:
/etc/init.d/autofs start|stop|restart|reload|status
or if the systemd init system is being used:
systemctl start|stop|restart|reload|status autofs.service
DESCRIPTION
autofs controls the operation of the automount(8) daemon(s) running on
the Linux system. Usually autofs is invoked at system boot time with
the start parameter and at shutdown time with the stop parameter. Ser-
vice control actions can also be manually invoked by the system admin-
istrator to shut down, restart, reload or obtain service status.
OPERATION
autofs will consult a configuration file /etc/auto.master (see
auto.master(5)) by default to find mount points on the system. For each
of those mount points automount(8) will mount and start a thread, with
the appropriate parameters, to manage the mount point.
/etc/init.d/autofs reload or systemctl autofs.service reload will check
the current auto.master map against the current automount managed
mounts. It will terminate those daemons or threads (depending on autofs
version) whose entries have been removed, re-read the automount maps
for entries that have changed and start new daemons or threads for en-
tries that have been added.
If an indirect map is modified then the change will become effective
immediately. If an indirect map uses the browse option, the master map
contains direct mount maps or the auto.master map is modified then the
autofs service control reload action must be rerun to activate the
changes.
However, if a map entry has offsets and is currently in use the offset
mounts cannot be updated due to potential mount dependencies. In this
case the map entry offsets will not be updated until after the map en-
try has expired.
/etc/init.d/autofs status or systemctl autofs.service status will dis-
play the status of, automount(8), running or not. When using the sys-
temd init system the status output includes somewhat more information
related to the service status.
systemctl(1) has more functions than the actions mentioned here, see
systemctl(1) for more information.
SEE ALSO
automount(8), autofs(5), autofs.conf(5), auto.master(5), aut-
ofs_ldap_auth.conf(5), systemctl(1).
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Christoph Lameter <chris@waterf.org>,
for the Debian GNU/Linux system. Edited by H. Peter Anvin <hpa@trans-
meta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.
9 Sep 1997 AUTOFS(8)