Why does automounter create a virtual filesystem?

[Felix Lee]

If automounter crashes, or you kill -9 automount, you're truly hosed.

foo:(pid175) on /net type nfs (ro,intr,port=769,map=-hosts,indirect)

/net never has anything but (virtual) symbolic links.  Is there any
reason that automount has to fake /net?  Why doesn't automount create
real symbolic links in a real /net directory?

Felix Lee	flee at shire.cs.psu.edu	*!psuvax1!flee