Understanding map modifications
You can modify automount maps at any time.
However, this does not guarantee that all your modifications
will take effect the next time automount mounts
a filesystem.
That depends on what map you modify and what kind of
modification you introduce.
For instance, suppose you modify the file /etc/auto.direct so that the directory /usr/src is now mounted from a different server. The new entry takes effect immediately (if /usr/src is not mounted at this time) when you try to access it. If it is mounted now, you can wait until the default unmounting takes place before you access it. If this is not satisfactory, you can unmount with the umount command; if you do, you must notify automount that the mount table has changed (see ``Stopping and restarting automount'') before accessing the directory. You can now mount the directory from the new server. However, if you wanted to delete the direct map entry containing /usr/src, you would have to restart automount for the deletion to take effect.
See also: