autofs(8)

NAME

   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.
   Service control actions can also be  manually  invoked  by  the  system
   administrator 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
   entries 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.

   /etc/init.d/autofs  status  or  systemctl  autofs.service  status  will
   display the status of, automount(8), running or  not.  When  using  the
   systemd   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).
   autofs_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@transmeta.com> and Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>.

                              9 Sep 1997                         AUTOFS(8)

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