[vox-tech] autofs - visible mountpoints and mountpoint locations

[Peter Jay Salzman]

hi all,

i just learned how to configure and use autofs.  works great except for
a few minor glitches.

one of the minor glitches is that the mount point, say, /auto/cdrom,
disappears until the filesystem gets mount.  for example, this produces
no output:

   $ ls /auto/

however, this produces the the directory listing for the cd drive:

   $ ls /auto/cdrom

in other words, when automount runs, the mount point is not there until
you ls or cd into the directory.  when the filesystem gets unmounted,
the mount point directory again disappears.

i googled for this, and found that other people experience the same
thing.  it kind of sucks because:

1. can't use filename completion (which i rely on)

2. graphical file openers cannot reach the filesytem.

3. having to tickle the directory before you use it is just
   very unaesthetic.

does anybody know a way around this?   in other words, does anybody know
how to keep the directories visible even when the filesystem isn't
mounted?

i could've sworn i've installed mandrake systems at our IF's that had
this behavior....



another minor glitch is that it appears you can't automount onto a top
level directory.  in other words, i can have the cd automount into
/auto/cdrom but not into /cdrom.  this is frustrating, because i really
like having the mountpoint /cdrom.  can someone confirm or refute this?
if possible, i'd REALLY like to have /cdrom, /floppy, and /jaz automount
rather than /auto/cdrom, /auto/floppy, and /auto/jaz.

thanks!
pete

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