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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!uwmcsd1!marque!doug
From: doug@marque.UUCP (harris)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: proposal for remote fileserver to access unix files in minix
Message-ID: <1719@marque.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 18:43:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: marque.1719
Posted: Tue Jul  7 18:43:25 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Jul-87 06:52:25 EDT
References: <3421@ihlpg.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: doug@marque.UUCP (harris, douglas)
Organization: Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Lines: 34

In article <3421@ihlpg.ATT.COM> jchvr@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Hartong) suggests:
>
>(eg. to consider Unix as a remote file server for Minx). If we could make
>
>How do we do this? Well for a start we must write a little program on Unix that
>understand the 25 or so messages that Minix can send to FS. (eg. access, mdir,
>chmod, ...) All this will be very simple on a Unix machine
>
>The second step is to provide some lower level of communication between his
>process on Unix and the FS on Minix.
>Did I arouse anyone interest enough to start a little discussion and maybe 
>someone will start coding it?

This idea is very reasonable, as is also the idea to use Ethernet or Starlan
interfaces that might exist on the PC.  I would strongly recommend that
anyone who is considering this option look at a "companion" book to
Andy T's O.S. book, namely, the second volume of Doug Comer's "Xinu"
book (Operating System Design, Volume II, Internetworking with XINU,
also a PH book, ISBN 0-13-637414-X 025).  This text relates the DOD
family of protocols, especially IP/UDP, to Xinu, and contains discussion
and implementation code for precisely the above suggested type of file
server; namely, a Unix file server for Xinu.  This runs over (more or
less) a UDP port, and the TCP/IP SLIP protocol could be adapted as the
protocol underneath UDP.  Even if you go with another protocol, the
discussion of naming conventions and so on for remote file systems is
well worth reading.

I expect next spring (soon enough :--) to have a class busily working
on a similar problem.  Of course if some of you implement it first
they will busily work upon modifying your code!

(For those who might not know, Xinu is a "simplified" Unix, also for
instructional purposes, discussed in Comer's first book by the same
title.  A discussion of Minix vs Xinu was held earlier in this group).