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From: schoff@csv.rpi.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  NFS comments
Message-ID: <8612191807.AA04236@csv.rpi.edu>
Date: Fri, 19-Dec-86 13:07:45 EST
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Posted: Fri Dec 19 13:07:45 1986
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	NFS is claimed to be a general network file system, but it really isn't.
	As someone who is trying to implement an NFS server for a non-UNIX
	system, I've got lots of problems.  Here are a few:
	
	There are some fields that are very UNIX specific.  A userid field is
	used to indicate user names for things like file authors.  This userid
	is a number and it is assumed that there is a GLOBAL /etc/passwd file
	so you can translate numbers to names.  This is completely bogus.  A
	userid should be a string, not a number.  More could be said about the
	groupid field.

I'd just like to comment on this aspect and let others comment on the
rest.  Back in 1982 when the new tacacs (TAC access) was being worked
there was some discussion on the "network id" (which broadly is what
NFS's ID is).  Independantly of ANYTHING that SUN was tooling up for
it was determined that the "network id" would in fact be a number.  The
last I heard that was still the plan (and implementation).

Marty Schoffstall