Autofs vs. fstab

mvo · 12-20-2005, 05:32 AM

Hi,

I use fstab for automounting my external HDD and other shares, even networkshares.

my questions, mostly for curiousity :

Can one, though it might not be desirable, automount an external HDD with autofs?

When is autofs recommandable to be used?
I haven't found situations where fstab didn't do the job.

thanks, Marcel

jtshaw · 12-20-2005, 06:51 AM

Autofs is useful for devices that are often installed after the machine is up and running. For instance, if you setup an external USB HD in autofs when you plug the drive in it'll automatically be detected and mounted on your running system. No need for any user commands. Similarly, you can make it automount CD's after insertion into the drive or any other removable media.

Typically fstab entries are mounted once at boot and then everything from there on out must be done through user interaction.

mvo · 12-20-2005, 07:27 AM

Extern USB HD:
It sounds good, untill now I did it with 'mount -t .... /dev/sda5' etc
Do you need to configure autofs to recognize ext USB HDD or does it do the job automatically?

jtshaw · 12-20-2005, 07:47 AM

You need to configure it for the drive, yes, but there is nothing special for a USB drive vs. any other removable media.

mvo · 12-20-2005, 07:56 AM

this I do not understand, my removable media is recognized and auto-mounted also without problems when autofs is off. So what adds autofs to this?