CELLALIAS(5)

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version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
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✨ CELLALIAS(5) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the tea on CellAlias — a file reference situation from the AFS girlies 💅 manual name goes here, it's section 5, it's a file format, and it is lowkey iconic.

🌸 NAME 🌸

CellAlias — the file that maps cell names to aliases in /afs. periodt.

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the CellAlias file is what the Unix cache manager reads when it's vibing in Dynamic Root mode, aka -dynroot. What it does? It creates symbolic links in the dynamic root (/afs) that link an alias for a cell (usually a short lil name) to the full name for that cell. it's giving nickname energy fr fr 🎀

The most common use of this config file is letting you use short names for cells you hit up constantly. Back in the day, those short names would be made by the local AFS administrator, by creating symbolic links in the root.afs volume. But those symlinks do not show up when Dynamic Root is enabled — because with Dynamic Root, the Cache Manager doesn't mount or even look at the root.afs volume. like, it simply does not perceive it 🙈 so CellAlias is the replacement, letting those short names get created under the client's control instead. slay.

Now, the cute part: if you configure a short name mapping like ir for ir.example.org, then the mapping of .ir to .ir.example.org for the read/write version of the root.cell volume for that cell gets created automatically. you do not have to list that alias separately. and ngl, afsd will report an error on startup if the dotted entry is listed separately. so don't do that bestie 😭

The contents of the CellAlias file should be one line of two whitespace-separated columns per alias:

  • first column → the real name of the cell
  • second column → the alias that should be created

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

This CellAlias file right here:

prod.example.com prod
test.example.org testcell

results in the following symbolic links:

/afs/.prod      ->  /afs/.prod.example.com
/afs/prod       ->  /afs/prod.example.com
/afs/.testcell  ->  /afs/.testcell.example.org
/afs/testcell   ->  /afs/testcell.example.org

ate. no crumbs. 👑

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Copyright 2007 Jason Edgecombe <jason@rampaginggeek.com>

This documentation is covered by the BSD License as written in the doc/LICENSE file. This man page was written by Jason Edgecombe for OpenAFS. giving credit where credit is due, we love to see it 🫶

okay that's the whole page, mwah 💋 this was brought to you by OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27, filed under CELLALIAS(5). go forth and alias responsibly, bestie 🧚✨

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