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HLFSD(8)		     System Manager's Manual			HLFSD(8)

NAME
     hlfsd - home-link file system daemon

SYNOPSIS
     hlfsd  [  -fhnpvC	] [ -a alt_dir ] [ -c cache-interval ] [ -g group ] [ -i
     reload-interval ] [ -l logfile ] [ -o mount-options ] [ -x log-options ]  [
     -D debug-options ] [ -P password-file ] [ linkname [ subdir ] ]

DESCRIPTION
     Hlfsd  is a daemon which implements a filesystem containing a symbolic link
     to subdirectory within a user's home directory, depending on the user which
     accessed that link.  It was primarily designed to redirect incoming mail to
     users' home directories, so that it can read from anywhere.

     Hlfsd operates by mounting itself as an NFS server for the  directory  con-
     taining linkname, which defaults to /hlfs/home.  Lookups within that direc-
     tory  are handled by hlfsd, which uses the password map to determine how to
     resolve the lookup.  The directory will be created if  it	doesn't  already
     exist.   The  symbolic link will be to the accessing user's home directory,
     with subdir appended to it.  If not specified, subdir defaults to .hlfsdir.
     This directory will also be created if it does not already exist.

     A SIGTERM sent to hlfsd will cause it to shutdown.  A SIGHUP will flush the
     internal caches, and reload the password map.  It will also close	and  re-
     open  the	log  file,  to enable the original log file to be removed or ro-
     tated.  A SIGUSR1 will cause it to dump its internal table of user IDs  and
     home directories to the file /usr/tmp/hlfsd.dump.XXXXXX.

OPTIONS
     -a alt_dir
	    Alternate  directory.   The  name of the directory to which the sym-
	    bolic link returned by hlfsd will point, if  it  cannot  access  the
	    home  directory  of the user.  This defaults to /var/hlfs.	This di-
	    rectory will be created  if it doesn't exist.  It is  expected  that
	    either  users  will  read  these files, or the system administrators
	    will run a script to resend this "lost mail" to its owner.

     -c cache-interval
	    Caching interval.  Hlfsd will cache the validity of home directories
	    for this interval, in seconds.  Entries  which  have  been	verified
	    within  the  last cache-interval seconds will not be verified again,
	    since the operation could be expensive, and  the  entries  are  most
	    likely  still valid.  After the interval has expired, hlfsd will re-
	    verify the validity of the user's  home  directory,  and  reset  the
	    cache  time-counter.   The	default  value for cache-interval is 300
	    seconds (5 minutes).

     -f     Force fast startup.  This option tells hlfsd  to  skip  startup-time
	    consistency  checks  such as existence of mount directory, alternate
	    spool directory, symlink to be hidden  under  the  mount  directory,
	    their permissions and validity.

     -g group
	    Set  the  special group HLFS_GID to group.	Programs such as from or
	    comsat, which access the mailboxes of other users)	must  be  setgid
	    HLFS_GID  to  work	properly.   The  default group is "hlfs".  If no
	    group is provided, and there is no group  "hlfs",  this  feature  is
	    disabled.

     -h     Help.  Print a brief help message, and exit.

     -i reload-interval
	    Map-reloading  interval.   Each  reload-interval seconds, hlfsd will
	    reload the password map.  Hlfsd needs the password map for the  UIDs
	    and  home  directory pathnames.  Hlfsd schedules a SIGALRM to reload
	    the password maps.	A SIGHUP sent to hlfsd will force it  to  reload
	    the maps immediately.   The default value for reload-interval is 900
	    seconds (15 minutes.)

     -l logfile
	    Specify a log file to which hlfsd will record events.  If logfile is
	    the  string  syslog then the log messages will be sent to the system
	    log daemon by syslog(3), using the	LOG_DAEMON  facility.	This  is
	    also the default.

     -n     No	verify.  Hlfsd will not verify the validity of the symbolic link
	    it will be returning, or that the  user's  home  directory	contains
	    sufficient	disk-space for spooling.  This can speed up hlfsd at the
	    cost of possibly returning symbolic links to home directories  which
	    are  not  currently accessible or are full.  By default, hlfsd vali-
	    dates the symbolic-link in the background.	The -n option  overrides
	    the meaning of the -c option, since no caching is necessary.

     -o mount-options
	    Mount  options.   Mount options which hlfsd will use to mount itself
	    on top of dirname.	By default, mount-options is set  to  "ro".   If
	    the  system  supports symbolic-link caching, default options are set
	    to "ro,nocache".

     -p     Print PID.	Outputs the process-id of hlfsd to standard output where
	    it can be saved into a file.

     -v     Version.  Displays version information to standard error.

     -x log-options
	    Specify run-time logging options.  The options are a comma separated
	    list chosen from: fatal, error, user, warn, info, map, stats, all.

     -C     Force hlfsd to run on systems that	cannot	turn  off  the	NFS  at-
	    tribute-cache.   Use of this option on those systems is discouraged,
	    as it may result in loss or mis-delivery of mail.  The option is ig-
	    nored on systems that can turn off the attribute-cache.

     -D log-options
	    Select from a variety of debugging	options.   Prefixing  an  option
	    with  the string no reverses the effect of that option.  Options are
	    cumulative.  The most useful option is all.  Since	this  option  is
	    only  used	for  debugging other options are not documented here.  A
	    fuller description is available in the program  source.   A  SIGUSR1
	    sent to hlfsd will cause it to dump its internal password map to the
	    file /usr/tmp/hlfsd.dump.XXXXXX.

     -P password-file
	    Read the user-name, user-id, and home directory information from the
	    file  password-file.   Normally,  hlfsd will use getpwent(3) to read
	    the password database.  This option allows you to override	the  de-
	    fault  database,  and is useful if you want to map users' mail files
	    to a directory other than their home directory.  Only the  username,
	    uid,  and  home-directory  fields of the file password-file are read
	    and checked.  All other fields are ignored.  The file  password-file
	    must  otherwise be compliant with Unix System 7 colon-delimited for-
	    mat passwd(4).

FILES
     /hlfs
	  directory under which hlfsd mounts itself  and  manages  the	symbolic
	  link home.

     .hlfsdir
	  default  sub-directory in the user's home directory, to which the home
	  symbolic link returned by hlfsd points.

     /var/hlfs
	  directory to which home symbolic link returned by hlfsd points  if  it
	  is unable to verify the that user's home directory is accessible.

SEE ALSO
     mail(1),  getgrent(3),  getpwent(3), mnttab(4), passwd(4), mtab(5), amd(8),
     automount(8), cron(8), mount(8), sendmail(8), umount(8).

     HLFSD: Delivering Email to Your $HOME, in Proc. LISA-VII,	The  7th  Usenix
     System Administration Conference, November 1993.

     ``am-utils'' info(1) entry.

     Linux NFS and Automounter Administration by Erez Zadok, ISBN 0-7821-2739-8,
     (Sybex, 2001).

     http://www.am-utils.org

AUTHORS
     Erez  Zadok  <ezk@cs.sunysb.edu>,	Computer Science Department, Stony Brook
     University,  Stony   Brook,   New	 York,	 USA.	 and   Alexander   Dupuy
     <dupuy@smarts.com>, System Management ARTS, White Plains, New York, USA.

     Other  authors  and contributors to am-utils are listed in the AUTHORS file
     distributed with am-utils.

				14 September 1993			HLFSD(8)

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