MOUNT_NFS(8) System Manager's Manual MOUNT_NFS(8)
NAME
mount_nfs - mount nfs file systems
SYNOPSIS
mount_nfs [-23KPTUbcdilqs] [-D deadthresh] [-I readdirsize]
[-L leaseterm] [-R retrycnt] [-a maxreadahead] [-g maxgroups]
[-m realm] [-o options] [-r readsize] [-t timeout]
[-w writesize] [-x retrans] rhost:path node
DESCRIPTION
The mount_nfs command calls the mount(2) system call to prepare and graft
a remote nfs file system (rhost:path) on to the file system tree at the
point node. This command is normally executed by mount(8). It implements
the mount protocol as described in RFC 1094, Appendix A and NFS: Network
File System Version 3 Protocol Specification, Appendix I.
The options are:
-2 Use the NFS Version 2 protocol.
-3 Use the NFS Version 3 protocol. The default is to try version 3
first, and fall back to version 2 if the mount fails.
-D Used with NQNFS to set the ``dead server threshold'' to the spec-
ified number of round trip timeout intervals. After a ``dead
server threshold'' of retransmit timeouts, cached data for the
unresponsive server is assumed to still be valid. Values may be
set in the range of 1 - 9, with 9 referring to an ``infinite dead
threshold'' (i.e. never assume cached data still valid). This
option is not generally recommended and is really an experimental
feature.
-I Set the readdir read size to the specified value. The value
should normally be a multiple of DIRBLKSIZ that is <= the read
size for the mount.
-K Pass Kerberos authenticators to the server for client-to-server
user-credential mapping. This requires that the kernel be built
with the NFSKERB option. (Refer to the INTERNET-DRAFT titled
Authentication Mechanisms for ONC RPC, for more information.)
-L Used with NQNFS to set the lease term to the specified number of
seconds. Only use this argument for mounts with a large round
trip delay. Values are normally in the 10-30 second range.
-P Use a reserved socket port number. This is useful for mounting
servers that require clients to use a reserved port number on the
mistaken belief that this makes NFS more secure. (For the rare
case where the client has a trusted root account but untrustwor-
thy users and the network cables are in secure areas this does
help, but for normal desktop clients this does not apply.)
-R Set the retry count for doing the mount to the specified value.
-T Use TCP transport instead of UDP. This is recommended for
servers that are not on the same LAN cable as the client. (NB:
This is NOT supported by most non-BSD servers.)
-U Force the mount protocol to use UDP transport, even for TCP NFS
mounts. (Necessary for some old BSD servers.)
-a Set the read-ahead count to the specified value. This may be in
the range of 0 - 4, and determines how many blocks will be read
ahead when a large file is being read sequentially. Trying a
value greater than 1 for this is suggested for mounts with a
large bandwidth * delay product.
-b If an initial attempt to contact the server fails, fork off a
child to keep trying the mount in the background. Useful for
fstab(5), where the filesystem mount is not critical to multiuser
operation.
-c For UDP mount points, do not do a connect(2). This must be used
for servers that do not reply to requests from the standard NFS
port number 2049.
-d Turn off the dynamic retransmit timeout estimator. This may be
useful for UDP mounts that exhibit high retry rates, since it is
possible that the dynamically estimated timeout interval is too
short.
-g Set the maximum size of the group list for the credentials to the
specified value. This should be used for mounts on old servers
that cannot handle a group list size of 16, as specified in RFC
1057. Try 8, if users in a lot of groups cannot get response
from the mount point.
-i Make the mount interruptible, which implies that file system
calls that are delayed due to an unresponsive server will fail
with EINTR when a termination signal is posted for the process.
-l Used with NQNFS and NFSV3 to specify that the ReaddirPlus RPC
should be used. This option reduces RPC traffic for cases such
as ``ls -l'', but tends to flood the attribute and name caches
with prefetched entries. Try this option and see whether perfor-
mance improves or degrades. Probably most useful for client to
server network interconnects with a large bandwidth times delay
product.
-m Set the Kerberos realm to the string argument. Used with the -K
option for mounts to other realms.
-o Options are specified with a -o flag followed by a comma sepa-
rated string of options. See the mount(8) man page for possible
options and their meanings.
-q Use the leasing extensions to the NFS Version 3 protocol to main-
tain cache consistency. This protocol version 2 revision to Not
Quite Nfs (NQNFS) is only supported by this updated release of
NFS code. It is not backwards compatible with the version 1
NQNFS protocol that was part of the first release of 4.4BSD-Lite.
To interoperate with a first release 4.4BSD-Lite NFS system you
will have to avoid this option until you have had an opportunity
to upgrade the NFS code to release 2 of 4.4BSD-Lite on all your
systems.
-r Set the read data size to the specified value. It should nor-
mally be a power of 2 greater than or equal to 1024. This should
be used for UDP mounts when the ``fragments dropped due to
timeout'' value is getting large while actively using a mount
point. (Use netstat(1) with the -s option to see what the
``fragments dropped due to timeout'' value is.) See the -w
option as well.
-s A soft mount, which implies that file system calls will fail
after Retry round trip timeout intervals.
-t Set the initial retransmit timeout to the specified value. May
be useful for fine tuning UDP mounts over internetworks with high
packet loss rates or an overloaded server. Try increasing the
interval if nfsstat(1) shows high retransmit rates while the file
system is active or reducing the value if there is a low retrans-
mit rate but long response delay observed. (Normally, the -d
option should be specified when using this option to manually
tune the timeout interval.)
-w Set the write data size to the specified value. Ditto the com-
ments w.r.t. the -r option, but using the ``fragments dropped due
to timeout'' value on the server instead of the client. Note
that both the -r and -w options should only be used as a last
ditch effort at improving performance when mounting servers that
do not support TCP mounts.
-x Set the retransmit timeout count for soft mounts to the specified
value.
SEE ALSO
mount(2), unmount(2), fstab(5), mount(8)
BUGS
Due to the way that Sun RPC is implemented on top of UDP (unreliable
datagram) transport, tuning such mounts is really a black art that can
only be expected to have limited success. For clients mounting servers
that are not on the same LAN cable or that tend to be overloaded, TCP
transport is strongly recommended, but unfortunately this is restricted
to mostly 4.4BSD servers.
4.4BSD March 29, 1995 4.4BSD