Have a normal system with /home as a dir. In /etc/auto.master: /home ldap:devserv.devel.redhat.com:nisMapName=auto.home,dc=devel,dc=redhat,dc=com --timeout=60 Run /etc/init.d/autofs stop. Not only is autofs no longer monitoring /home, the /home directory is *gone*.
Yes, this should be fixed for directories that existed before autofs was started.
Chris, I think this affects the same code paths as the /net bug you are looking into (137998).
This bug has been fixed in autofs-4.1.3-77.
We seem to be suffering from a similar problem. At our site, /opt as a symbolic link to /misc/opt, which is an automount point. All autofs configuration, including auto.master, is in a LDAP directory. Sometimes when the NFS server times out, the /opt->misc/opt symbolic link is removed. /misc/opt is still accessible and works, but the symbolic link pointing to it is deleted automagically. This does not happen on every shutdown or every timeout - I haven't been able to reproduce it reliably. It has happened many times on half a dozen machines over the last 5 months. A dying ethernet switch increased the frequency of these events, so I assume it happens on timeout. The NFS clients running autofs are Fedora Core 3, kernel versions 2.6.9-1.678_FC3 - 2.6.10-1.770_FC3 and autofs 4.1.3-28. The server is FC2, running a Fedora 2.6.9 kernel (not sure which one).
Try upgrading to the latest test version of autofs on your client machines, this should fix your problem. http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/testing/3/i386/autofs-4.1.3-114.i386.rpm
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on the solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2005-177.html