9.4.3. Overriding or Augmenting Site Configuration Files

It can be useful to override site defaults for a specific mount point on a client system. For example, consider the following conditions:
  • Automounter maps are stored in NIS and the /etc/nsswitch.conf file has the following directive: 
    automount:    files nis
  • The auto.master file contains the following 
    +auto.master
  • The NIS auto.master map file contains the following: 
    /home auto.home
  • The NIS auto.home map contains the following: 
    beth        fileserver.example.com:/export/home/beth
joe        fileserver.example.com:/export/home/joe
*       fileserver.example.com:/export/home/&
  • The file map /etc/auto.home does not exist.
Given these conditions, let's assume that the client system needs to override the NIS map auto.home and mount home directories from a different server. In this case, the client will need to use the following /etc/auto.master map: 
/home ­/etc/auto.home
+auto.master
The /etc/auto.home map contains the entry: 
*    labserver.example.com:/export/home/&
Because the automounter only processes the first occurrence of a mount point, /home will contain the contents of /etc/auto.home instead of the NIS auto.home map.
Alternatively, to augment the site-wide auto.home map with just a few entries, create an /etc/auto.home file map, and in it put the new entries. At the end, include the NIS auto.home map. Then the /etc/auto.home file map will look similar to: 
mydir someserver:/export/mydir
+auto.home
Given the NIS auto.home map listed above, ls /home would now output: 
beth joe mydir
This last example works as expected because autofs does not include the contents of a file map of the same name as the one it is reading. As such, autofs moves on to the next map source in the nsswitch configuration.