Hi. From autofs's man page I get that it checks a configuration file located in /etc ( /etc/auto.master ) to find mountpoints etc... I've looked for that file and it doesn't exist... so looks like I don't need the autofs package and neither the autofs option in the kernel right ? Cause everything seems to work just fine. And another questions would be... what is autofs used for ? Mount local partitions or mount something over the network... if I remember correct I've heard or read somewhere about this but doesn't clear anything in the man page... Thanks in advance.

autofs is used to control the automounter daemon. If you don't use the automounter daemon, you don't need autofs.

The automounter daemon handles on-access mounting of disks (trying to read from the mount point will cause the disk to mount, as opposed to mounting it yourself).

See the automounter manpage.