autofs in Slackware 13.0. Some questions
 

Hello :)

autofs in Slackware 13.0 is version 3.1.7 which is quite old; the sample config files in /usr/doc/autofs-3.1.7/samples/ are dated 1997. The package is not of normal Slackware standard; the sample rc.autofs does not work on Slackware, it's only for Debian and RedHat (Alien Bob provides a fixed version).

I figure there is a reason for this unusual state of affairs. Perhaps autofs is no longer important, superseded by udev. Perhaps more current versions of autofs are not stable enough for Slackware.

AFAIK udev does not support auto-unmount and AFAIK this is important for using vchanger 0.8.5 with Bacula 5.0.0.

The problem is that option "--timeout=60" in /etc/autofs.master (as advised in the vchanger documentation) results in "automount[3300]: parse(sun): unknown option: -timeout=30" in syslog. It may not be supported in autofs 3.1.7.

What to do?

• Stay with autofs 3.1.7 and find another way of doing timeout?
• Install the latest autofs?
• Find a way to implement automount (at vchanger's instigation) and timeout using udev?

Best

Charles

Mind the correct syntax is "-timeout 30"

Btw I'm using this startup script, where you can define the timeout and remove it from /etc/auto.master
Regards

Thanks bathory -- to my rescue again :)

Where is the correct syntax described? In auto.master I tried --timeout=60 first then -timeout=60 and finally ---timeout=60 (it reportedly solved a problem on OpenSUSE). Only --timeout=60 resulted in automounting (without auto unmounting).

That's one clever startup script, re-writing the config files on the fly and moving any timeout option to an automounter command option.

As a workaround -- to allow project progress -- I've done the equivalent manually (KISS), deleting --timeout=60 from auto.master and adding as an automounter command option in (Alien Bob's) rc.autofs. It's auto unmounting OK.

Looking at kernel.org's autofs sources, there doesn't seem to have been a stable version yet :eek:

Hi,

Yup, it goes to auto.master.
You don't need the equal sign"=". Just put a space instead, like: "--timeout 60"

Cheers

Thanks bathory :)

Sorry it has taken a while. Tried it while installing on another computer that but it broke automounting. Removed --timeout and retested, changing nothing else. Automounting worked again.

A question about autofs and nfs4 under slackware.
Under redhat i use simply -fstype=nfs4 and work
under slackware i can't see only empty directories.
Why?

Does it work if you add a fstab entry for a nfs mount and mount manually with mount command ?

Sure.