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On Sunday 06 January 2008, Stroller wrote: |
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> Hi there, |
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> |
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> I was on #gentoo yesterday asking about autofs & someone recommended |
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> ivman instead. |
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> Which does gentoo-users think I should use? |
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Dilemmas like this are best resolved by finding out what problem a |
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technology was designed to solve. |
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A good example of the kind of problem autofs solves is exporting home |
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directories on a large server that has many accounts, used in |
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conjunction with NFS and NIS, and anyone can log in from any |
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workstation at any time. This scenario is common - think thin clients |
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Say you have 100 accounts and user joe logs onto the network. You |
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*could* export /home to his workstation, but that exposes everyone |
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else's homedir as well. With autofs you essentially tell the server |
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that this is user joe, it exports his home dir on the fly, creates a |
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directory /home/joe on his workstation (/home must already exist)and |
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mounts the NFS export there. |
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Now, you don't appear to be doing something like that :-) |
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You can do many wonderful things with autofs, but it often involves |
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complex hacks and workarounds, which is the impetus for other solutions |
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to be developed, like ivman. |
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-- |
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Alan McKinnon |
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alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |
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-- |
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gentoo-user@l.g.o mailing list |
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