Normal LOFS behaviour?

UNIX Solaris
1

I've got one directory LOFS mounted on top of another (this is to help move from an older standard that we used to follow to a newer one that we will be).

Something like this:

bash-3.00# df -k | grep /x
/dev/md/dsk/d4       77449687   88172 76587019     1%    /x
/x                  77449687   88172 76587019     1%    /app

Now,

bash-3.00# cd /x
bash-3.00# ls
ControlMagent6.2  admin             home              oracle
InfraData         dbatools          lost+found
bash-3.00# cd /app
bash-3.00# ls
ControlMagent6.2  admin             home              oracle
InfraData         dbatools          lost+found

which is fine.
But,

bash-3.00# cd /app/dbatools
bash-3.00# ls
DBE_DBATOOLS  lost+found    open_client
bash-3.00# cd /x/dbatools
bash-3.00# ls
bash-3.00#

The thing to note here is that /app/dbatools is a separate filesystem as opposed to just being a directory.

bash-3.00# df -k /app/dbatools
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/vx/dsk/oracle_locdg/dbatools
                     9437184  571386 8311701     7%    /app/dbatools

The DBAs have scripts that are referring to /x/dbatools and expecting to find other scripts/commands to execute under that directory, and the lack of any directory structure under /x/dbatools is causing them to fail.

Is this normal behaviour for LOFS mounted filesystems? If I mount x on top of y, and create a mountpoint z that uses x as part of the directory name, will I not be able to access the mountpoint z by using y as part of the directory name?

2

I tested out on another system (a test box), and this is apparently normal LOFS behaviour.

Q. Is this normal behaviour for LOFS mounted filesystems? If I mount x on top of y, and create a mountpoint z that uses x as part of the directory name, will I not be able to access the mountpoint z by using y as part of the directory name?

A. Yes. To be able to access mountpoint z for a different filesystem that uses either x or y as part of the pathname, z will have to contain the pathname x when it gets mounted. Then you can access it via either /x/z or /y/z.