From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Peter C. Norton" Subject: Re: direct vs indirect maps?? Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 19:51:18 -0700 Message-ID: <20051005025118.GE5852@lenin.net> References: <43431528.5060506@eecs.wsu.edu> <20051005014351.GA32035@uio.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20051005014351.GA32035@uio.no> List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: autofs-bounces@linux.kernel.org Errors-To: autofs-bounces@linux.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: autofs@linux.kernel.org On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 03:43:51AM +0200, Steinar H. Gunderson wrote: > On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 04:50:00PM -0700, Jim Kusznir wrote: > > I've found references to "direct" and "indirect" maps throughout the > > various autofs documentation. However, I have not yet found an > > understandable definition of what the difference is. Could someone > > enlighten me? > > Direct maps are relative to /, indirect maps are relative to some other path. > > (At least that's my understanding of it.) > A practical way to think about it is that direct maps are things that you may otherwise put into /etc/fstab except that you may want them centrally controlled. It's the way to fake a common federated namespace - like AFS - which lets you create the same mountpoints on all systems even if the fstab format is different and even if the server changes once in a while. Except it doesn't actually work on linux yet, but the team here seems to be really trying to get this one done. -Peter -- The 5 year plan: In five years we'll make up another plan. Or just re-use this one.