With yaVDR 0.2 we introduced the automatic mounting of network shares through an autofs-based mechanism. Many users had problems with that and the development was discontinued. Since then we concentrated on finding a new and better solution.I guess we now have one. it's first available in yaVDR 0.3 but can also be used in any Debian-based VDR installation.

There is a mechanism originally sketch out from Apple which they called zeroconf. The idea is that every host in a network broadcasts all the services he offers. Clients can than automatically consume what they like and understand, obviously. Why not do the same with VDR?

The specification of zeroconf is free to use for everyone and there is a implementation on Linux, too. It's called avahi and supports broadcasting of services as well as the consumption of them.

The addon comes with some preconfigured services and also supports as a client the automatic mounting of exposed services of a special kind. So exporting and mounting between VDR hosts works without further user interaction. It is also very easy to setup every linux-based installation to broadcast own services in a way that they can be automatically used from VDR. More information on that will be given in a howto soon.

Howto get a hand on this amazing feature in yaVDR: It's currently available in the testing branch. Simply do:

apt-get install vdr-addon-avahi-mounter

on every host that should export nfs shares or use them. That's all. Lean back and enjoy.