Chapter Summary

NFS allows a server to share selected local directory hierarchies with client systems on a heterogeneous network, reducing storage needs and administrative overhead. NFS defines a client/server relationship in which a server provides directory hierarchies that clients can mount.

On the server, the /etc/exports file lists the directory hierarchies that the system exports. Each line in exports lists the systems that are allowed to mount the hierarchy and specifies the options for each hierarchy (readonly, read-write, and so on). Give an exportfs r command to cause NFS to reread this file.

From a client, you can give a mount command to mount an exported NFS directory hierarchy. Alternatively you can put an entry in /etc/fstab to have the system automatically mount the directory hierarchy when it comes up.

Automatically mounted directory hierarchies help manage large groups of systems with many servers and filesystems in a consistent way and can help remove serverserver dependencies. The automount daemon automatically mounts autofs directory hierarchies when they are needed and unmounts them when they are no longer needed.