Hello.
I would like to point out a difference between autofs and the Sun
automounter. I've discussed this with Peter Anvin, but after a brief
discussion he disagreed with me that the functionality proposed by me
wasn't a good solution. I didn't agree, but I respect his opinions.
Therefore, I don't think that I have much call for my idea, but since
there is a difference, I still want to point it out. If you think I'm
obnoxious and should go away, please ignore my ramblings...
Ok, the scenario is as follows: We have a large Unix installation (ca 1000
Suns, ca 10 HP and 2 Linux), and we distribute software via NFS. I.e.,
only the OS is installed locally, and all software is installed on large
NFS servers, and the software is "mounted" on the client when needed. All
the software is then reachable via /usr/local/<softwarename> . So, if I
want a perl interpreter, I find it under /usr/local/perl5/bin/perl, where
/usr/local/perl5 is mounted from my designated NFS server when I need it.
Now, we don't specify every software in the autmounter configuration
files, we use a couple of * entries, like this ('taz' is my NFSserver, an
UltraSparc running Solaris 2.6):
/etc/auto_local:
* -rw,intr taz:/export/linux.core/&
So if I ask for /usr/local/perl5 it mounts it from
taz:/export/linux.core/perl5.
And this works in autofs to. Like a charm. Now, the problem is, that we
seperate different types of software into different directory. .core is
software that must exist, like perl, global cshrc-files etc. All the
boring bought software like framemaker goes into .local, and all the fun
freeware goes into .godis (Swedish for candy). So, I added two more
entries:
/etc/auto.local
* -rw,intr taz:/export/linux.core/&
* -rw,intr taz:/export/linux.local/&
* -rw,intr taz:/export/linux.godis/&
Now it stops working. Or to be exact, autofs only looks att the first
entry, linux.core, and doesn't care about the two other. It only looks at
the first entry. (If I remove the linux.core-entry, autofs finds the
linux.local-entry and works with that and skips the linux.godis-entry)
I saw something about MultiMounts in autofs v4.0 in the docs, but I don't
see that that is the solution to my problems. If I'm wrong, do tell me so.
Ok, I hope I made myself understood now. If you say that "hey, that's the
way it supposed to work", I can only say "fine...". But you should be
aware that this is not the way it works in either Solaris or HPUX. I find
a solution with a cronjob fixing links somewhat patchy.
Fredrik S�rensson - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
System/Network Administrator Ericsson Data G�teborg
