Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

automount

Synopsis

automount -help
automount -V
automount [-m map_directory map] [-1] [-a mount_directory] [-d] 
[-D { mount | options | proc | select | all }] [-f] [-s] [-tcp] 
[-tl timeout] [-tm timeout]

Provides transparent, automated access to NFS and AFP shares. When running, any filesystem access to map_directory is intercepted by automount. Typically, automount will then set up a symbolic link from map_directory or one of its subdirectories to a mount point under mount_directory, automatically creating directories and mounting remote volumes as needed. It will also unmount remote volumes that have been idle for too long. Directories or mounts set up by automount are removed when automount exits.

automount makes use of maps to determine how to mount volumes. When using a file as a map, the format is similar to that used by NFS automounters on other Unix platforms. Each entry in the file consists of a single line, either a comment beginning with a hash mark (#) or a mount directive of the form:

                     subdirectory server:/pathname

If this line were included in a file named /etc/mountmaps, and automount were called like so:

# automount -m /mount_directory /etc/mountmaps

upon accessing /mount_directory, automount would mount the NFS-exported server:/pathname on /private/mount_directory/subdirectory, and create a symlink to that mount point from /mount_directory/subdirectory.

At one time it was also possible to use a map stored in a NetInfo database under a /mountmaps directory, but ...