autofs hangs on nonexistent directories and files

[Daniel Kopelove]

Binary package hint: autofs

stat of any file in the mounted share point (i.e. /home) that does not exist hangs. Stat of the same non-existent file on Ubuntu 7.10 returns immediately.

the 8.04 version of autofs is 4.1.4+debian-2.1ubuntu1
the 7.10 version of autofs is 4.1.4+debian-1

here is my auto.master file:
/home /etc/auto.home --timeout=15

here is my auto.home file
* -intr,soft,nosuid,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,udp duos:/home/&

These files are identical on the 7.10 and 8.04 installs
A wireshark trace on the 8.04 installation shows an immediate return of the NFSerror ENOENT (no such file or directory) so the issue is not with the network or network layer.

[Daniel Kopelove (kopelovd)]

I wanted to post a link to another bug I filed (incorrectly). The resolution of this issue will also fix this other bug. This other bug is actually how I found out about this issue.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/218959

[MenTaLguY (mental-deactivatedaccount)]

I also have this problem with processes hanging when nonexistent autofs directories.

[MenTaLguY (mental-deactivatedaccount)]

This could be related to #214041

[Ludwik Trammer (ludwik)]

I also have this problem. In High School I work for we use NFS mounted /home directories on most of our desktop computers, and this bug makes them seem extremely unstable. Not knowing the reason I field this bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/224820

[Ludwik Trammer (ludwik)]

I think it's more of a nfs-utils problem, than autofs problem. In Red Hat bug tracker I've found an information that a similar, probably related, bug https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=439807 was fixed in nfs-utils-1.1.2-2. I don't know if it's Red Hat specific.