Networking Guide
Chapter 12, Configuring the Network File System (NFS)

About mounting and unmounting NFS filesystems

About mounting and unmounting NFS filesystems

A client can mount a filesystem in four different ways:

automatic mounting at system start
The system administrator of a client machine can configure the client to automatically mount remote filesystems every time the client machine goes to multiuser mode. Each remote filesystem to be mounted at this time must have an entry in the /etc/default/filesys file of the client. The entry must include the option rcmount=yes or rcmount=prompt. If rcmount=prompt is specified, the system queries for instructions and only mounts the remote filesystem if it receives a positive response. Remote filesystems mounted because of an entry in /etc/default/filesys are unmounted when the system goes to single-user mode.

administrator manual mounting
The system administrator of a client machine can manually mount remote filesystems at any time using the mount(ADM) command.

user mounting
The system administrator of a client machine can authorize users to mount remote filesystems when they need access to them. See ``Enabling users to mount filesystems''.

automounting
A client machine can be configured to automatically mount remote filesystems when a user executes a command requiring access to those files. The mounted filesystems remain mounted until a preset period of inactivity has passed. At this point the client automatically unmounts them. See ``How automount works''.


CAUTION: Mounting filesystems from remote hosts can incur security risks. See ``Imported data'' in the System Administration Guide for more information.