How to list NFS exports from a client
Listing NFS exports from the client side confirms that the server advertises the path you plan to mount before any local mount point or /etc/fstab entry is changed. This check catches wrong server names, blocked RPC services, and export rules that do not include the client network.
On Linux, showmount queries the server's mount service and –exports asks for the exported directories plus the client selectors shown by that service. Ubuntu and Debian provide it in nfs-common, while Red Hat-family systems provide it in nfs-utils.
A visible export does not prove that every mount option, UID mapping, or Kerberos rule will permit file access. Some NFSv4-only servers also do not answer showmount because the check depends on the older mount protocol, so a timeout or empty list should be compared with the server-side export table before changing client mount files.
Steps to list NFS exports from a client:
- Open a terminal on the Linux client that will mount the NFS export.
- Install the NFS client utility package if showmount is not available.
Use nfs-common on Ubuntu and Debian clients, or nfs-utils on RHEL, CentOS Stream, Fedora, and compatible systems.
- Query the server's export list from the client.
$ showmount --exports files.example.net Export list for files.example.net: /srv/nfs/projects 192.0.2.0/24
showmount --exports and showmount -e perform the same export-list request. Run the command from a client on the same network path that will later mount the share.
- Confirm that the expected export path and client selector appear in the output.
The selector after the path can be a host name, an IP address, a subnet such as 192.0.2.0/24, or a broad value such as (everyone) depending on the server.
- Query the server IP address directly if the hostname result is empty or points to an unexpected system.
$ showmount --exports 192.0.2.40 Export list for 192.0.2.40: /srv/nfs/projects 192.0.2.0/24
This separates DNS or host-alias mistakes from the export configuration itself.
- Treat a timeout, RPC: Program not registered, or missing path as a server-side or network signal rather than a client mount-file problem.
Do not add the export to /etc/fstab until the expected path is visible to the client or the server owner confirms that the server is NFSv4-only and must be checked through an NFSv4 mount path.