Accessing Windows or Samba shares using AutoFS

kernelpanicked

Thu Dec 14 18:29:36 -0800 2006

manage

autofs just seems like such a huge nasty hack to me. Does anyone know if there are any advantages to doing this rather than just putting one line in /etc/fstab?

Accessing Windows or Samba shares using AutoFS

ReverendRyan

Thu Dec 14 18:58:41 -0800 2006

manage

I've never used it but from the article it seems that it would be usefull from a sysadmin/desktop support position - instead of
$ sudo mount -t smbfs //cluelessnoob/c$ /mnt/tmp -o username=bofh
Password:
$ rm -rf /mnt/tmp/Documents\ And\ Settings/noob/My\ Documents

You could simply do

$ rm -rf /cifs/cluelessnoob/c$/Documents\ and\ Settings/noob/My\ Documents

Much more efficient that way.

Accessing Windows or Samba shares using AutoFS

kernelpanicked

Thu Dec 14 22:26:45 -0800 2006

manage

While it's an nfs mount and not samba (a samba mount would look nearly identical)

# grep nfs /etc/fstab                                                                                                                                               
thor:/home/jamesb/share /fileserv nfs rw,nodev,nosuid,noauto 0 0
# mount /fileserv
# rm -rf /fileserv/somedirectory

I'm still not seeing the advantage.

Accessing Windows or Samba shares using AutoFS

imroy

Thu Dec 14 23:58:42 -0800 2006

manage

The advantage of AutoFS comes when you have several/many servers, and/or you're using a laptop that is not always connected to the LAN.

Putting everything in fstab means you either mount everything on boot-up (and depend on the kernel to handle disconnects) or mount things manually. AutoFS allows you mount filesystems (not just network filesystems) on demand, simply by accessing a directory or file.

Accessing Windows or Samba shares using AutoFS

kernelpanicked

Fri Dec 15 06:18:29 -0800 2006

manage

That makes a bit of sense I guess. Thanks for the quick explanation.