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AutoFS is a program that uses the Linux kernel automounter to automatically mount filesystems on demand. It works with USB flash drives and external hard drives, network shares, CDROM/DVD/Blu-ray, and so on.

AutoFS works by monitoring directories on the local filesystem. Whenever a program tries to access one of those directories, AutoFS will mount something on that directory. The directories to monitor, as well as what to mount on them, are specified in the AutoFS configuration files such as /etc/autofs/autofs.master. Examples of how to configure AutoFS mounts are given down the page, under Usage.

Installation

AutoFS requires a kernel module and a userspace program.

Note
To mount a filesystem (whether with AutoFS, or manually), the corresponding mount helper needs to be installed at the time of mounting. For example, sys-fs/ntfs3g or something equivalent is required to mount an NTFS filesystem. Some filesystems may also require changes to the kernel configuration. Check the wiki page for the specific filesystem to see what software and configuration will be required.

Kernel configuration

The following kernel option activates the kernel functionality required for automounting.

KERNEL

File systems --->
    <*/M> Kernel automounter version 4 support (also supports v3)

Note
If the option is set to M, the partition that contains the module file must already be mounted before AutoFS can work.

Userspace program

As with most Linux filesystems, in addition to the relevant option being enabled in the kernel, the userspace package must be installed to actually handle the mounting.

USE flags for net-fs/autofs Kernel based automounter

`+libtirpc`	Use TiRPC library instead of SunRPC
`dmalloc`	Enable debugging with the dmalloc library
`ldap`	Install LDAP module
`mount-locking`	Enable locking to prevent corruption of /etc/mtab in the presence of concurrent auto-mounting. If enabled, recursive auto-mounting (eg. using autofs to bind or loop mount a filesystem which is itself auto-mounted) is not possible.
`sasl`	Enable SASL support in the LDAP module
`selinux`	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
`systemd`	Enable use of systemd-specific libraries and features like socket activation or session tracking

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-09-12 18:37 More information about USE flags

Install it with the following command:

root #emerge --ask net-fs/autofs

Additional software

To be able to mount NFS file systems, the net-fs/nfs-utils package is required:

root #emerge --ask net-fs/nfs-utils

For CIFS file systems the net-fs/cifs-utils package is additionally required:

root #emerge --ask net-fs/cifs-utils

For WebDAV file systems the net-fs/davfs2 package is required:

root #emerge --ask net-fs/davfs2

Configuration

Service

The AutoFS daemon needs to be running for automounting to work.

OpenRC

Add AutoFS to the default runlevel:

root #rc-update add autofs default

To begin using the automounter before rebooting, start it manually:

root #/etc/init.d/autofs start

Of course it is advisable to edit the configuration files first, as described below. If AutoFS is already running when the configuration is edited, run the following command to reload the configuration:

root #/etc/init.d/autofs reload

Files

The default installation of AutoFS provides the following four configuration files:

File	Description
/etc/conf.d/autofs	This file can be used to pass command-line options to the `automount` program. Most users will not need to edit this file.
/etc/autofs/autofs.conf	This file defines some default parameters for AutoFS, such as the location of the master map file and the default timeout that causes an inactive mount to be disconnected. Most users will not need to edit this file.
/etc/autofs/auto.master	This is the "master map", effectively an index to the "map files" and other resources that tell AutoFS what to mount and where. Most users will need to edit this file.
/etc/autofs/auto.misc	This is an example of a "map file" which is referenced by the master map. It specifies what to mount and where to mount it. Most users will need to edit this file.

/etc/conf.d/autofs

/etc/conf.d/autofs is the configuration file that corresponds to the initscript /etc/init.d/autofs. For basic AutoFS usage, there is no need to modify this file.

The file defines two variables:

USE_MISC_DEVICE: If this is set to "yes", the initscript will create the device file /dev/autofs.
OPTIONS: This contains command-line arguments to be passed to automount. Run man 8 automount to view the manual page which lists all the allowed options.

Note
automount may be given one non-option argument, the filename of the master map, but for most users the default value (auto.master) is fine. If you do want to change the master map filename, setting the master_map_name configuration variable in /etc/autofs/autofs.conf is probably a better way to do it. The rest of this page assumes the master map filename has been left at the default value.

/etc/autofs/autofs.conf

/etc/autofs/autofs.conf is AutoFS's own configuration file. The default installation is well commented, and the options that can be specified in this file are also documented in the manual page, which can be viewed by running

user $man 5 autofs.conf

There is typically no need to modify this file.

/etc/autofs/auto.master

/etc/autofs/auto.master is the (default) "master map". Each line describes an AutoFS mount.

Tip
Basic usage is described in man auto.master

Warning
AutoFS does not use the terms "mount" and "mount point" in quite the same way as /bin/mount or /etc/fstab.

The typical configuration line for this file takes following format:

CODE

mount-point [map-type[,format]:]map [options]

Important
Indirect maps will be created, similarly to mkdir -p and is removed when the filesystem is unmounts.

mount-point specifies a directory for AutoFS to watch, and map that tells AutoFS what to mount there. For details, see Usage.

After handling the first two (whitespace-separated) fields as mount-point and map respectively, anything else on the line is treated as an option to be passed to either AutoFS's automount (if it starts with a dash), or mount (if it does not). Options passed to mount will follow the -o switch. See Usage for an example.

Important
The comments in auto.master say the format is key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location. As of version 5.1.2, that is wrong. That format applies to entries in map files, such as /etc/autofs/auto.misc.

/etc/autofs/auto.misc

/etc/autofs/auto.misc is an example of a "map file". Only those map files actually referenced in the master map file are actually used by AutoFS, so it is safe to rename or delete this file as long as you edit /etc/autofs/auto.master to match. You can also create additional map files following the same syntax. By convention, map files are named with the pattern /etc/autofs/auto.*.

Lines in this file take the following format:

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.misc

key             [-options]                                   location

Here key specifies a unique key associated with the AutoFS mount, which forms part or all of the path at which the filesystem will be mounted. location tells AutoFS what filesystem to mount there. -options is a comma-separated list of options to pass to mount, except for some special options which are handled by AutoFS (such as fstype). For details, see Usage below, or view the manual page by running

user $man 5 autofs

Usage

Important
Autofs mounts will not be mounted until access is attempted. This means it cannot be used to simply automatically mount devices added to the system.

AutoFS mounts are specified in /etc/autofs/auto.master

Example configuration:

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.masterMount blockdevices, defined in /etc/autofs/auto.blockdev, at /media/blockdev, with a timeout of 5 seconds

/media/blockdev    /etc/autofs/auto.blockdev   --timeout=5

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.blockdevAutomatically mount block devices under /dev at /media/blockdev indirectly

*   -fstype=auto            :dev/&

The location of the map takes the format host:path. In this case, it is auto.blockdev, which references /etc/autofs/auto.blockdev. The host component may be left empty to refer to a path on the local machine. Otherwise, the named path from the named remote host will be mounted using NFS.

With this configuration, /media/blockdev will be crated when the autofs service is started. If a device exists at /dev/sda1 and access to /media/blockdev/sda1 is attempted, the device at that location should automatically mount there.

There are two kinds of AutoFS mounts, direct and indirect.

Direct AutoFS mounts

For a direct AutoFS mount, the mount-point is /-, and key in the map file is the full path at which the filesystem will be mounted. For example, the manual pages for AutoFS include an example like this:

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.master

/-              /etc/autofs/auto.data

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.data

/tst/sbin       bogus:/usr/sbin

These lines tell AutoFS to watch the directory /tst/sbin. If a program tries to access anything in that directory, AutoFS will mount the directory /usr/sbin from the remote host bogus on the local directory /tst/sbin. In other words, it will effectively execute the command

root #mount -t nfs bogus:/usr/sbin /tst/sbin

An example of mounting a local device might look like this:

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.master

/-              /etc/autofs/auto.local

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.local

/mnt/stuff      -fstype=ext4    :/dev/sdd1

This will effectively execute the command

root #mount -t ext4 /dev/sdd1 /mnt/stuff

Indirect AutoFS mounts

For an indirect AutoFS mount, the mount-point is a directory path, and map is the full path to a file which describes rules for mounting devices inside that directory. For example, the default installation includes the following line (though it is commented out):

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.master

/misc           /etc/autofs/auto.misc

This line would tell AutoFS to watch files and directories under /misc for filesystem accesses. When a program tries to access something under /misc, AutoFS will use the configuration in /etc/autofs/auto.misc to determine whether to automatically mount something. Each (non-comment, non-empty) line in that file corresponds to something that AutoFS will be able to mount under /misc. For example, the line

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.misc

cd              -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev     :/dev/cdrom

tells AutoFS to watch /misc/cd. When a program tries to access this directory, AutoFS will effectively run the command

root #mount -t iso9660 -o ro,nosuid,nodev /dev/cdrom /misc/cd

Here are some other examples:

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.misc

# mount-point below /mnt/auto | mount options | device, network share etc.

# network share mounted via NFSv3 on /mnt/auto/data
data            -rw,vers=3,soft,async                        192.0.2.1:/tank1/data
# network share mounted via CIFS on /mnt/auto/data1
data1           -fstype=cifs,credentials=/root/smb.txt       ://192.0.2.1/data1
# memory stick used regulary with known UUID, for example a Kindle
kindle          -fstype=vfat,rw,uid=1000                     :UUID="4CBF-23A2"

Indirect mounts allow AutoFS to use wildcards. For example, if users' home directories are stored on a different machine and mounted over NFS, AutoFS could be configured as follows:

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.master

/home           /etc/autofs/auto.home

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.home

*               neighborhood:/export/home/&

This way, when a user larry logs in and accesses some files in their home directory, AutoFS will effectively run the command:

root #mount -t nfs neighborhood:/export/home/larry /home/larry

Useful options

These options can be given in the master map file.

--timeout=<seconds> specifies the number of seconds that an automounted filesystem can go unused before AutoFS unmounts it.
--ghost or browse (no dash in the latter form) can be useful for indirect mounts. It causes AutoFS to create the directory on which something would be mounted when the automount daemon starts up, rather than only when the directory is accessed.

For a full description of options, run

user $man 5 auto.master

Non-file maps

In /etc/autofs/auto.master, instead of merely specifying map, the second column can take a more complicated form such as map-type:map, which allows the map to be something other than a file. For instance, it can be an executable which prints out map specifications (the lines that would be included in a map file), or any of various types of databases. For a full description of recognized types, run

user $man 5 auto.master

Simple Windows-like Samba share mounting

Here is a way to automatically mount network Samba shares, as Windows does. This configuration allows automounting a share by issuing the following command in a shell:

user $cd /net/192.0.2.1/share

or navigating to /net/192.0.2.1/share in a filesystem browser or dialog. The files inside will appear as if they were located on the local machine.

Important
For this to work, Samba must be installed and configured prior to mounting.

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.master

/net     file:/etc/autofs/auto.smbm    --ghost --nonstrict

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.smbm

*        -fstype=autofs,-Dhost=&       file://etc/autofs/auto.share

FILE /etc/autofs/auto.share

*         -fstype=cifs,username=guest,password=,file_mode=0664,dir_mode=0775,uid=netmount,gid=netmount,port=139     ://${host}/&

Troubleshooting

In case of mount failure or problems use following steps to narrow the source of the issue.

Stop the autofs service:

root #/etc/init.d/autofs stop

Run the automount daemon in the foreground to log to stderr, add the verbose option to view logging of general status and progress messages in the current running terminal:

root #automount -f -v

As a regular system user mount the filesystem by changing into the directory:

user $cd /net/gentoo

Verify the output running the daemon in foreground and with verbose mode. Example failure message displayed in the output below:

root #automount -f -v

Starting automounter version 5.1.6, master map auto.master
using kernel protocol version 5.05
mounted indirect on /net with timeout 300, freq 75 seconds
attempting to mount entry /net/gentoo
>> mount: /net/gentoo: bad option; for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program.
mount(generic): failed to mount //example.net/larry (type cifs) on /net/gentoo
failed to mount /net/gentoo

External resources

Automount mini-Howto on The Linux Documentation Project website
AutoFS page on the Ubuntu Community Help Wiki