AMD.CONF(5) BSD File Formats Manual AMD.CONF(5)NAMEamd.conf — amd configuration file
SYNOPSISamd.confDESCRIPTION
The amd.conf file is the configuration file for amd, as part of the am-
utils suite.
amd.conf contains runtime configuration information for the amd(8) auto‐
mounter program.
FILE FORMAT
The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the
name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next sec‐
tion begins or the end of the file is reached. Sections contain parame‐
ters of the form ‘name = value’.
The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents
either a comment, a section name or a parameter. No line-continuation
syntax is available.
Section, parameter names and their values are case sensitive.
Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace
before or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing
and internal whitespace in section and parameter names is irrelevant.
Leading and trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded.
Internal whitespace within a parameter value is not allowed, unless the
whole parameter value is quoted with double quotes as in ‘name =
"some value"’.
Any line beginning with a pound sign (#) is ignored, as are lines con‐
taining only whitespace.
The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a
string (no quotes needed if string does not include spaces) or a boolean,
which may be given as yes/no. Case is significant in all values. Some
items such as cache timeouts are numeric.
SECTIONS
The [global] section
Parameters in this section either apply to amd as a whole, or to all
other regular map sections which follow. There should be only one global
section defined in one configuration file.
It is highly recommended that this section be specified first in the con‐
figuration file. If it is not, then regular map sections which precede
it will not use global values defined later.
Regular [/map] sections
Parameters in regular (non-global) sections apply to a single map entry.
For example, if the map section [/homes] is defined, then all parameters
following it will be applied to the /homes amd-managed mount point.
PARAMETERS
Parameters common to all sections
These parameters can be specified either in the global or a map specific
section. Entries specified in a map-specific section override the
default value or one defined in the global section. If such a common
parameter is specified only in the global section, it is applicable to
all regular map sections that follow.
browsable_dirs (string, default=no)
If "yes", then amd's top-level mount points will be browsable to
readdir(3) calls. This means you could run for example ls(1) and
see what keys are available to mount in that directory. Not all
entries are made visible to readdir(3): the "/default" entry, wild‐
cardentries, and those with a "/" in them are not included. If you
specify "full" to this option, all but "/default" will be visible.
Note that if you run a command which will attempt to stat(2) the
entries, such as often done by "ls -l" or "ls -F", amd will attempt
to mount every entry in that map. This is often called a mount
storm.
map_options (string, default no options)
This option is the same as specifying map options on the command
line to amd, such as ‘cache:=all’.
map_type (string, default search all map types)
If specified, amd will initialize the map only for the type given.
This is useful to avoid the default map search type used by amd
which takes longer and can have undesired side-effects such as ini‐
tializing NIS even if not used. Possible values are:
file plain files
hesiod Hesiod name service from MIT
ldap Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
ndbm (New) dbm style hash files
nis Network Information Services (version 2)
nisplus Network Information Services Plus (version 3)
passwd local password files
union union maps
mount_type (string, default=nfs)
All amd mount types default to NFS. That is, amd is an NFS server
on the map mount points, for the local host it is running on. If
"autofs" is specified, amd will be an autofs server for those mount
points.
search_path (string, default no search path)
This provides a (colon-delimited) search path for file maps. Using
a search path, sites can allow for local map customizations and
overrides, and can distributed maps in several locations as needed.
Parameters applicable to the global section only
arch (string, default to compiled in value)
Allows you to override the value of the arch amd variable.
auto_dir (string, default=/a)
Same as the -a option to amd. This sets the private directory
where amd will create sub-directories for its real mount points.
cache_duration (numeric, default=300)
Same as the -c option to amd. Sets the duration in seconds that
looked up map entries remain in the cache.
cluster (string, default no cluster)
Same as the -C option to amd. Specifies the alternate HP-UX clus‐
ter to use.
debug_options (string, default no debug options)
Same as the -D option to amd. Specify any debugging options for
amd. Works only if am-utils was configured for debugging using the
--enable-debug option. The "mem" option alone can be turned on via
--enable-debug=mem. Otherwise debugging options are ignored.
Options are comma delimited, and can be preceded by the string "no"
to negate their meaning. You can get the list of supported debug‐
ging options by running amd -v. Possible values are:
all all options
amq register for amq(8)
daemon enter daemon mode
fork fork server
full program trace
info info service specific debugging (hesiod, nis, etc.)
mem trace memory allocations
mtab use local ./mtab file
str debug string munging
test full debug but no daemon
trace protocol trace
dismount_interval (numeric, default=120)
Same as the -w option to amd. Specify, in seconds, the time
between attempts to dismount file systems that have exceeded their
cached times.
fully_qualified_hosts (string, default=no)
If "yes", Amd will perform RPC authentication using fully-qualified
host names. This is necessary for some systems, and especially
when performing cross-domain mounting. For this function to work,
the amd variable ${hostd} is used, requiring that ${domain} not be
null.
hesiod_base (string, default=automount)
Specify the base name for hesiod maps.
karch (string, default to karch of the system)
Same as the -k option to amd. Allows you to override the kernel-
architecture of your system. Useful for example on Sun (Sparc)
machines, where you can build one amd binary and run it on multiple
machines, yet you want each one to get the correct karch variable
set (for example, sun4c, sun4m, sun4u, etc.) Note that if not
specified, amd will use uname(3) to figure out the kernel architec‐
ture of the machine.
ldap_base (string, default not set)
Specify the base name for LDAP.
ldap_cache_maxmem (numeric, default=131072)
Specify the maximum memory amd should use to cache LDAP entries.
ldap_cache_seconds (numeric, default=0)
Specify the number of seconds to keep entries in the cache.
ldap_hostports (string, default not set)
Specify LDAP-specific values such as country and organization.
local_domain (string, default no sub-domain)
Same as the -d option to amd. Specify the local domain name. If
this option is not given the domain name is determined from the
hostname by removing the first component of the fully-qualified
host name.
log_file (string, default=/dev/stderr)
Same as the -l option to amd. Specify a file name to log amd
events to. If the string /dev/stderr is specified, amd will send
its events to the standard error file descriptor. IF the string
syslog is given, amd will record its events with the system logger
syslogd(8). The default syslog facility used is LOG_DAEMON. If
you wish to change it, append its name to the log file name, delim‐
ited by a single colon. For example, if logfile is the string
"syslog:local7" then amd will log messages via syslog(3) using the
LOG_LOCAL7 facility (if it exists on the system).
log_options (string, default no logging options)
Same as the -x option to amd. Specify any logging options for amd.
Options are comma delimited, and can be preceded by the string “no”
to negate their meaning. The “debug” logging option is only avail‐
able if am-utils was configured with --enable-debug. You can get
the list of supported debugging options by running amd -v. Possi‐
ble values are:
all all messages
debug debug messages
error non-fatal system errors
fatal fatal errors
info information
map map errors
stats additional statistical information
user non-fatal user errors
warn warnings
warning warnings
nfs_retransmit_counter (numeric, default=110)
Same as the counter part of the -t interval.counter option to amd.
Specifies the retransmit counter's value in tenths of seconds.
nfs_retry_interval (numeric, default=8)
Same as the interval part of the -t interval.counter option to amd.
Specifies the interval in tenths of seconds, between NFS/RPC/UDP
retries.
nis_domain (string, default to local NIS domain name)
Same as the -y option to amd. Specify an alternative NIS domain
from which to fetch the NIS maps. The default is the system domain
name. This option is ignored if NIS support is not available.
normalize_hostnames (boolean, default=no)
Same as the -n option to amd. If “yes”, then the name refereed to
by ${rhost} is normalized relative to the host database before
being used. The effect is to translate aliases into "official"
names.
os (string, default to compiled in value)
Same as the -O option to amd. Allows you to override the compiled-
in name of the operating system. Useful when the built-in name is
not desired for backward compatibility reasons. For example, if
the build in name is “sunos5”, you can override it to “sos5”, and
use older maps which were written with the latter in mind.
osver (string, default to compiled in value)
Same as the -o option to amd. Override the compiled-in version
number of the operating system. Useful when the built in version
is not desired for backward compatibility reasons. For example, if
the build in version is “2.5.1”, you can override it to “5.5.1”,
and use older maps that were written with the latter in mind.
pid_file (string, default=/dev/stdout)
Specify a file to store the process ID of the running daemon into.
If not specified, amd will print its process id only the standard
output. Useful for killing amd after it had run. Note that the
PID of a running amd can also be retrieved via amq -p. This file
is used only if the print_pid option is on.
plock (boolean, default=yes)
Same as the -S option to amd. If “yes”, lock the running exe‐
cutable pages of amd into memory. To improve amd's performance,
systems that support the plock(3) call can lock the amd process
into memory. This way there is less chance it that the operating
system will schedule, page out, and swap the amd process as needed.
This improves amd's performance, at the cost of reserving the mem‐
ory used by the amd process (making it unavailable for other pro‐
cesses).
portmap_program (numeric, default=300019)
Specify an alternate Port-mapper RPC program number, other than the
official number. This is useful when running multiple amd pro‐
cesses. For example, you can run another amd in “test” mode, with‐
out affecting the primary amd process in any way. For safety rea‐
sons, the alternate program numbers that can be specified must be
in the range 300019-300029, inclusive. amq has an option -P which
can be used to specify an alternate program number of an amd to
contact. In this way, amq can fully control any number of amd pro‐
cesses running on the same host.
print_pid (boolean, default=no)
Same as the -p option to amd. If “yes”, amd will print its process
ID upon starting.
print_version (boolean, default=no)
Same as the -v option to amd, but the version prints and amd con‐
tinues to run. If “yes”, amd will print its version information
string, which includes some configuration and compilation values.
restart_mounts (boolean, default=no)
Same as the -r option to amd. If “yes”, amd will scan the mount
table to determine which file systems are currently mounted. When‐
ever one of these would have been auto-mounted, amd inherits it.
selectors_on_default (boolean, default=no)
If “yes”, then the /default entry of maps will be looked for and
process any selectors before setting defaults for all other keys in
that map. Useful when you want to set different options for a com‐
plete map based on some parameters. For example, you may want to
better the NFS performance over slow slip-based networks as fol‐
lows:
/defaults \
wire==slip-net;opts:=intr,rsize=1024,wsize=1024 \
wire!=slip-net;opts:=intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192
show_statfs_entries (boolean, default=no)
If “yes”, then all maps which are browsable will also show the num‐
ber of entries (keys) they have when "df" runs. (This is accom‐
plished by returning non-zero values to the statfs(2) system call.)
unmount_on_exit (boolean, default=no)
If “yes”, then amd will attempt to unmount all file systems which
it knows about. Normally amd leaves all (esp.) NFS mounted
filesystems intact. Note that amd does not know about file systems
mounted before it starts up, unless the restart_mounts option or -r
flag are used.
Parameters applicable to regular map sections
map_name (string, must be specified)
Name of the map where the keys are located.
tag (string, default no tag)
Each map entry in the configuration file can be tagged. If no tag
is specified, that map section will always be processed by amd. If
it is specified, then amd will process the map if the -T option was
given to amd, and the value given to that command-line option
matches that in the map section.
EXAMPLES
Here is a real amd configuration I use daily.
# GLOBAL OPTIONS SECTION
[ global ]
normalize_hostnames = no
print_pid = no
restart_mounts = yes
auto_dir = /n
log_file = /var/log/amd
log_options = all
#debug_options = all
plock = no
selectors_on_default = yes
# config.guess picks up "sunos5" and I don't want to edit my maps yet
os = sos5
# if you print_version after setting up "os", it will show it.
print_version = no
map_type = file
search_path = /etc/amdmaps:/usr/lib/amd:/usr/local/AMD/lib
browsable_dirs = yes
# DEFINE AN AMD MOUNT POINT
[ /u ]
map_name = amd.u
[ /proj ]
map_name = amd.proj
[ /src ]
map_name = amd.src
[ /misc ]
map_name = amd.misc
[ /import ]
map_name = amd.import
[ /tftpboot/.amd ]
tag = tftpboot
map_name = amd.tftpboot
SEE ALSOamd(8), amq(8)AUTHORS
Erez Zadok ⟨ezk@cs.columbia.edu⟩, Department of Computer Science, Colum‐
bia University, New York, USA.
Jan-Simon Pendry ⟨jsp@doc.ic.ac.uk⟩, Department of Computing, Imperial
College, London, UK.
Other authors and contributers to am-utils are listed in the AUTHORS file
distributed with am-utils.
HISTORY
The amd utility first appeared in 4.4BSD.
BSD April 7, 1997 BSD
