-Support is available for filesystems that wish to do automounting support (such
-as kAFS which can be found in fs/afs/). This facility includes allowing
-in-kernel mounts to be performed and mountpoint degradation to be
-requested. The latter can also be requested by userspace.
+Support is available for filesystems that wish to do automounting
+support (such as kAFS which can be found in fs/afs/ and NFS in
+fs/nfs/). This facility includes allowing in-kernel mounts to be
+performed and mountpoint degradation to be requested. The latter can
+also be requested by userspace.
======================
IN-KERNEL AUTOMOUNTING
======================
-A filesystem can now mount another filesystem on one of its directories by the
-following procedure:
-
- (1) Give the directory a follow_link() operation.
-
- When the directory is accessed, the follow_link op will be called, and
- it will be provided with the location of the mountpoint in the nameidata
- structure (vfsmount and dentry).
-
- (2) Have the follow_link() op do the following steps:
-
- (a) Call vfs_kern_mount() to call the appropriate filesystem to set up a
- superblock and gain a vfsmount structure representing it.
-
- (b) Copy the nameidata provided as an argument and substitute the dentry
- argument into it the copy.
-
- (c) Call do_add_mount() to install the new vfsmount into the namespace's
- mountpoint tree, thus making it accessible to userspace. Use the
- nameidata set up in (b) as the destination.
-
- If the mountpoint will be automatically expired, then do_add_mount()
- should also be given the location of an expiration list (see further
- down).
-
- (d) Release the path in the nameidata argument and substitute in the new
- vfsmount and its root dentry. The ref counts on these will need
- incrementing.
+See section "Mount Traps" of Documentation/filesystems/autofs4.txt
Then from userspace, you can just do something like:
===========================
Automatic expiration of mountpoints is easy, provided you've mounted the
-mountpoint to be expired in the automounting procedure outlined above.
+mountpoint to be expired in the automounting procedure outlined separately.
To do expiration, you need to follow these steps:
- (3) Create at least one list off which the vfsmounts to be expired can be
- hung. Access to this list will be governed by the vfsmount_lock.
+ (1) Create at least one list off which the vfsmounts to be expired can be
+ hung.
- (4) In step (2c) above, the call to do_add_mount() should be provided with a
- pointer to this list. It will hang the vfsmount off of it if it succeeds.
+ (2) When a new mountpoint is created in the ->d_automount method, add
+ the mnt to the list using mnt_set_expiry()
+ mnt_set_expiry(newmnt, &afs_vfsmounts);
- (5) When you want mountpoints to be expired, call mark_mounts_for_expiry()
+ (3) When you want mountpoints to be expired, call mark_mounts_for_expiry()
with a pointer to this list. This will process the list, marking every
vfsmount thereon for potential expiry on the next call.