automounter on RS/6000

[Wendy Ross]

Three questions about the RS/6000 automounter:

1)  Has anyone tried using the RS/6000 automounter who doesn't
    run yp?
 
The only way I've been able to get the automounter to work is
by running several processes, one for each directory I wish
to mount.

For example:
 
/usr/etc/automount /n/engin/sol /etc/auto.sol
/usr/etc/automount /n/engin/jetson /etc/auto.jetson
 
where /etc/auto.sol looks like:
u       -rw     sol.engin.umich.edu:/u
u2      -rw     sol.engin.umich.edu:/u2

and /etc/auto.jetson looks similar.
 
I tried from the /n/engin directory level, but that didn't
seem to work.
 
What I'd really like is /etc/auto.master:
/n/engin/sol    /etc/auto.sol
/n/engin/jetson /etc/auto.jetson

with /etc/auto.sol and /etc/auto.jetson as above.
This way (theoretically) I would just run one automount process.
 
The instructions for setting this up involve making some yp
files and so forth.  What if we don't run yp?  Is there a way
around this?  I tried just starting /usr/etc/automount, but it
dies and syslogd reports that yp_bind fails (big surprise).
 

2)  Any comments about the way the RS/6000 handles an "ls" in 
    automounted directories?
 
Example:
 
# pwd
/
# /usr/etc/automount /n/engin/sol /etc/auto.sol
# ls /n/engin/sol
/n/engin/sol unreadable
# cd /n/engin/sol/u
# ls /n/engin/sol
u
 
The suns simply return a prompt without proclaiming the directory
unreadable.  (I'm not sure if this is better or worse -- comments?)
 
3)  Any comments on the performance of the automounter ( I'm not
    interested in diatribe on automounter performance in general,
    just the RS/6000 specifically ).
 
 
Thanks for any input.  Please mail me directly and I will summarize.
 
Wendy Ross                          internet: wross at caen.engin.umich.edu
Computer Aided Engineering Network  
University of Michigan AA
 
<insert amusing quip here>