NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     mount_portalfs -- mount the portal daemon

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     mount_portalfs [-o options] /etc/portal.conf mount_point

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The mount_portalfs utility attaches an instance of the portal daemon to
     the global file system namespace.	The conventional mount point is /p.
     This command is normally executed by mount(8) at boot time.

     The options are as follows:

     -o      Options are specified with a -o flag followed by a comma separated
 string of options.  See the mount(8) man page for possible
	     options and their meanings.

     The portal daemon provides an open service.  Objects opened under the
     portal mount point are dynamically created by the portal daemon according
     to rules specified in the named configuration file.  Using this mechanism
     allows descriptors such as sockets to be made available in the file system
 namespace.

     The portal daemon works by being passed the full pathname of the object
     being opened.  The daemon creates an appropriate descriptor according to
     the rules in the configuration file, and then passes the descriptor back
     to the calling process as the result of the open system call.

NAMESPACE    [Toc]    [Back]

     By convention, the portal daemon divides the namespace into sub-namespaces,
 each of which handles objects of a particular type.

     The following sub-namespaces are currently implemented: tcplisten, tcp
     and fs.  The tcplisten namespace takes a slash separated hostname and
     port and creates a TCP/IP socket bound to the given hostname-port pair.
     The hostname may be specified as "ANY" to allow any other host to connect
     to the socket.  A port number of 0 will dynamically allocate a port, this
     can be discovered by calling getsockname(2) with the returned file
     descriptor.  Privileged ports can only be bound to by the super-user.
     The tcp namespace takes a hostname and a port (slash separated) and creates
 an open TCP/IP connection.  The fs namespace opens the named file,
     starting back at the root directory.  This can be used to provide a controlled
 escape path from a chrooted environment.

CONFIGURATION FILE    [Toc]    [Back]

     The configuration file contains a list of rules.  Each rule takes one
     line and consists of two or more whitespace separated fields.  A hash
     (``#'') character causes the remainder of a line to be ignored.  Blank
     lines are ignored.

     The first field is a pathname prefix to match against the requested pathname.
  If a match is found, the second field tells the daemon what type
     of object to create.  Subsequent fields are passed to the creation function.


     # @(#)portal.conf	     5.1 (Berkeley) 7/13/92
     tcplisten/      tcplisten tcplisten/
     tcp/	     tcp tcp/
     fs/	     file fs/

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

     /p/*

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     mount(2), unmount(2), fstab(5), mount(8)

CAVEATS    [Toc]    [Back]

     This file system may not be NFS-exported.

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The mount_portalfs utility first appeared in 4.4BSD.


FreeBSD 5.2.1			March 27, 1994			 FreeBSD 5.2.1