autofs version?
kernel version?
output from lsmod?

The sysreport does not contain the autofs version.  At least, I don't know where
to look for it if it does.  As such, I'm leaving this bug in NEEDINFO.

Please include the auto.master and related maps for this.  This sounds
related to the map update work I'm doing.

The customer says they enabled debug, and the logs didn't say anything
interesting.  Make sure they are capturing all of the debug messages.

Add an entry to /etc/syslog.conf that looks like so:

*.*    /var/log/debug

Then restart syslogd.

Presumably the customer knows how to enable debugging for autofs.  You simply
append a --debug to the line in auto.master that you want to debug.

Restart autofs.  When the problem occurs, have them send the logs, whether or
not they think the logs show anything interesting.

I have reproduced this in my environment.  The reproducer follows:

auto.master:
/segfault       /etc/auto.segfault --ghost --timeout=4

auto.segfault:
multi   /       segfault:/export/multi \
        /foo    segfault:/export/multi/thefoodir

Start the automounter, and then run this script:

while true;
do
        cat /segfault/multi/foo/bar > /dev/null
        if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
                tail -n 200 /var/log/messages > /tmp/failurelog.`date`
                echo "Failed!"
                exit 1
        fi
        sleep 4
done

The file, bar, is actually a copy of a kernel.  I did this just to give the file
a reasonable size:

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1.4M Jun  9  2005 /segfault/multi/foo/bar

The script will exit and print an error when we receive no such file or
directory.  At that point, an ls of /segfault/multi/foo will fail.  An ls of
/segfault/multi will then remount the whole tree, and subsequent accesses will
succeed.

I have a kernel patch for this which fixes the problem in my environment.  I
will attach it shortly.

Created attachment 115270 [details]
Fix the "no such file or directory" errors when using the --ghost option

Can we get the customer to test this patch, please?  Leaving in NEEDINFO,
pending test results.

A fix for this problem has just been committed to the RHEL3 U6
patch pool this evening (in kernel version 2.4.21-32.9.EL).

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/RHSA-2005-663.html

*** Bug 196028 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***