The automatic mount process

The automatic mounting process starts when your system first enters system state 3. This whole process is performed by the /etc/rc3.d/S22nfs script, which also contains other commands not related to the mounting process. The following sequence of events relates to the mounting process carried out by the S22nfs script.

1. The script executes the shareall program, which reads the server's /etc/dfs/dfstab file, then tells the kernel which resources the server can share and what access restrictions (if any) are on these files.

2. It then starts the nfsd daemon, which is used in server operations.

3. S22nfs starts the biod daemon, which is used in client operations.

4. It then starts mountd, which processes mount requests.

5. S22nfs then starts lockd, which processes lock requests, and statd, which interacts with lockd to provide crash and recovery functions for the locking services.

6. The script starts the mountall program with the -F nfs option, which reads the client's vfstab file and mounts all NFS-type files mentioned there in a manner similar to an explicit mount (see ``The explicit mount process'').