The mount table
automount uses the same kernel table (/etc/mnttab)
as the conventional NFS mounting approach in which to
store a record of all active mounts. When automount creates
a mount, it adds a record of the mount to /etc/mnttab.
When it unmounts a filesystem, it removes the record of that
mount from /etc/mnttab.
automount keeps an image in memory of
/etc/mnttab
and refreshes this image every time it performs a mounting
or an automatic unmounting.
See also: