AUTO.VOL(5)

NAME
auto.vol - automount map for volumes

SYNOPSIS
/etc/auto.vol

AVAILABILTITY

Available only on Sun 386i systems running a SunOS 4.0.x release or earlier. Not a SunOS 4.1 release feature.

DESCRIPTION

auto.vol resides in the /etc directory, and contains automount(8) map entries for volumes. On Sun386i systems, this file is used to build the auto.vol Network Information Service (NIS) map used by automount(8) at system startup. automouunt reads the auto.master NIS map, which contains an entry for auto.vol and /vol.

References to /vol/volume_name are translated by the automount daemon using the auto.vol map, and the directory specified in the map entry is mounted.

The concept of a volume is that it is a self contained directory hierarchy that can be NFS mounted. It is referenced using a known volume_name. The use of an automount map is suggested so that the volume and its contents can be referenced through /vol. This is advantageous because location-transparency (that is, which host the volume is on) and replication of read-only volumes can be provided using the automount mechanism. The format of the entry is described in automount(8). An example entry is:

    archive    system4:/export/archive

In the above example, the archive volume is currently on line on system4. Users and programs can reference it via /vol/archive. If for some reason the volume had to be moved to another system, system2 for example, the network or system administrator simply edits the map entry for the archive volume and changes the hostname to system2 and then rebuilds the NIS maps.

    archive    system2:/export/archive

Users and programs can continue to refer to the archive volume using /vol/archive, unaware that the volume was moved to another system.

FILES
/etc/auto.vol

SEE ALSO
automount(8)

NOTES

The Network Information Service (NIS) was formerly known as Sun Yellow Pages (YP). The functionality of the two remains the same; only the name has changed.