exportfs -r without -B fails because it skips the initial protocol. For example, executing this one on host A % aux/listen1 -tv tcp!$addr!64470 /bin/exportfs -r /dev and executing this on host B % import -A tcp!$addr!64470 will typically either fail to read the initial string or result in a bad tree. I believe that exportfs should only skip the initial protocol with -B, -S, etc. The fix entails reading the path requested by import and discarding it.