From: Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net>
Subject: automountd(8) hardcodes /etc/auto_master filename 
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2026 15:10:08 +0000
To: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Message-Id: <YykWwLzFlfRt-NUw7neI0iEv8-97EUwH@niodd.siamics.net>
License: CC0-1.0 (original contributions only)
Organization: Dbus-free station.

>Submitter-Id:  net
>Originator:    Ivan Shmakov
>Organization:
Dbus-free station.
>Confidential:  no
>Synopsis:      automountd(8) hardcodes /etc/auto_master filename 
>Severity:      non-critical
>Priority:      low
>Category:      bin
>Class:         sw-bug
>Release:       NetBSD 10.1
>Environment:
Architecture: x86_64
Machine: amd64
>Description:

	I often find it convenient to first experiment with new
	configuration files under /tmp before writing them to /etc
	(not in the least because I normally have / mounted read-only.)

	Unlike many other daemons that can read their configuration
	from files given on command line (e. g., # mountd /tmp/exports ),
	automountd(8) has /etc/auto_master hardcoded as AUTO_MASTER_PATH
	in usr.sbin/autofs/common.h.

	I request that a command line option is implemented that allows
	that default filename to be overridden from command line.

	JFTR, looking at the FreeBSD automountd(8) manual page [1],
	I see that the upstream version is also affected.

[1] http://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=automountd&sektion=8

>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix: