[CentOS] nfs cannot see mount points on other machine

[Kai Schaetzl]

Jason Pyeron wrote on Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:42:40 -0400:

> This option is based on the option of the same name provided in IRIX NFS.
> Normally, if a server exports two filesystems one of which is mounted on the
> other, then the client will have to mount both filesystems explicitly to get
> access  to  them.   If  it just  mounts the parent, it will see an empty
> directory at the place where the other filesystem is mounted.  That filesystem
> is "hidden".

Thanks for the hint about exports, I think I would have never tried man on that. 
I think it's not the problem I see, but after some more reading and experiencing 
that the proposed solution fails I think I know the reason.

The above paragraph only applies to the cross-mounted filesystem I think, e.g. 
if I mount under /nfs/hostname then this will be "hidden". I tried the "nohide" 
solution and it didn't make a difference for my problem. There's also an 
interesting option crossmnt explained right after nohide, but this is not going 
to work either I think (and actually I don't really understand it, it's 
confusingly explained).

On rereading that man article it becomes obvious that you mount "filesystems". 
So, if you mount / on the other machine you get only what the other machine has 
under that mount point. If I have a mount point /home on the other machine that 
won't be available under the / export. I have to export and mount 
/nfs/hostname/home if I want to get that one as well. I think. I haven't tried 
yet.

What doesn't fit in this, though, is the fact that the other mount points are 
displayed as directories and I can work on them (just in some cache it seems). 
This is very confusing as you never know if you are working on the real thing or 
not. I would have thought that the coders would have taken care of that. So, 
maybe my theory is not correct. But the nohide option doesn't fix the problem 
either.


Kai

-- 
Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany
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