MOUNT_PORTAL(8)         OpenBSD System Manager's Manual        MOUNT_PORTAL(8)

NAME
     mount_portal - mount the portal daemon

SYNOPSIS
     mount_portal [-o options] /etc/portal.conf mount_point

DESCRIPTION
     The mount_portal command attaches an instance of the portal daemon to the
     global filesystem 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
             Options are specified with a -o flag followed by a comma separat-
             ed string of options.  See the mount(8) man page for possible op-
             tions 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 filesystem
     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
     By convention, the portal daemon divides the namespace into sub-names-
     paces, each of which handles objects of a particular type.

     Currently, two sub-namespaces are implemented: tcp and fs. The tcp names-
     pace 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
     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 path-
     name.  If a match is found, the second field tells the daemon what type
     of object to create.  Subsequent fields are passed to the creation func-
     tion.

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

FILES
     /p/*

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

HISTORY
     The mount_portal utility first appeared in 4.4BSD.

CAVEATS
     This filesystem may not be NFS-exported.


OpenBSD 3.0                     March 27, 1994                               2
