NFS with a dead host

[jwt@example.com (Jim Tittsler)]

I often mount an NFS volume on my Linux 2.0 workstation (sounds
so much more impressive than PC, ne?) but then neglect to unmount
it before (a) the luser on the remote system switches to another
operating system or (b) unplugs the system from the network.

The next time I do something that scans over my entire file
system (like 'df' or 'find / -name "oldproject*" -print') my
machine hangs when it gets to the NFS mount point.  I've tried
being very patient and killing it with Ctrl-\.  Neither works.
I end up using another shell to kill the offending task.

If I try to umount the remote directory after the host has gone
away, umount complains with an RPC error message... and doesn't
mark the file system as unmounted.

I don't recall this happening back in the dark ages, but am not
sure when it started.  I'm using Linux 2.0 and portmap 4.0(?).

Jim