After defining the directories to export in the /etc/exports file, run the exportfs command to process the exports file and to build /var/lib/nfs/xtab.   The xtab file contains information about the currently exported directories, and it is that mountd reads when processing client mount requests.   To process all of the entries in the /etc/exports file, run exportfs with the -a command-line option:

   # exportfs -a

  Below is a short summary regarding Other parameters to the exportfs command, as follows:

# exportfs -a 

   will build a completely new xtab file based on the content of the /etc/exports file

# exportfs -r 

   this will export and then synchronize the contents of the /etc/exports file ad the xtab file.

# exportfs falcon:/usr/local -o rw 

   You can even use the exports command to export a directory that is not listed in the /etc/exports file.   

   example above will export the folder /usr/local ot the client falcon with a read/write permission

# exportfs -u falcon:/usr/local 

   this command would end the export and prevent falcon from mounting the /usr/local directory or folder

# exportfs -ua 

   the -u option can be combined with the -a option to completely shut down all exports without terminating the NFS daemons

After the daemons are running and the /etc/exports file has been processed by exportfs, the clients can mount and use the filesystems offered by your server.   

The next section looks at how a Linux system is configured as an NFS client.