Re: autofs: kernel-assisted automounter

Jason L Tibbitts III (tibbs@hpc.uh.edu)
08 Apr 1997 01:21:20 -0500


>>>>> "HPA" == H Peter Anvin <hpa@transmeta.com> writes:

[Quoting me]
>> I vaguely recall problems with kernel-level automounters in general really
>> messing things up on a hanging mount, and that multithreading within the
>> automounter was the answer. How does Linux autofs handle this?

HPA> I have no idea what you are talking about here.

I think the problem was basically this:

I cd to a directory which forces a mount from a remote machine, which is
hung or slow. autofs goes off to mount it.
Another user opens a file which forces another mount. The automounter,
however, is blocked serving the former request.
Both requests sit until the first times out. Then the second request is
served.

HPA> [...] my daemon forks a process to do any dirty (= potentially slow)
HPA> work on a mount point, avoiding that problem.

Then it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks,

- J<