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Message-ID: <366@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: Mon, 20-Jul-87 13:13:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: louie.366
Posted: Mon Jul 20 13:13:07 1987
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From: Glen Overby 

Subject: Re: proposal for remote fileserver to access unix files in minix

I, too, have been thinking of a way to implement a remote filesystem in
Minix.  I think it would be best to go the same way as many Unix remote
file systems; that of replacing inodes with vnodes. The vnode would then
specify what type of file system is being used: Minix, MS-DOS (why not?),
remote, or yet another (local) file system. Each of these file systems
would be implemented as another Server process.  What we know today as FS
would have its function reduced to a dispatcher for the other servers and
handling of the calls like exit, dup and mount.

Another modification to FS is that it would not be able to block on messages
sent to the other file system servers because those servers may take a long
time to respond (especially a remote one).

It is obviously foolish to lock the physical I/O into one specific type
of device like a 117KB serial port or Ethernet; maybe the best approach
is to design the file system as a stream...

On a related topic...
In article <2082@mulga.oz> Andrew Worsley writes:
>  [ ... ] anyone got
> the sources to NFS :-)

There was a remote file system posted to Mod.sources some time ago (when
it was called that) called "RFS" (no apparent relation to the System5.3 RFS).
It can be gotten from the archives. RFS hooks heavily into BSD sockets, so
it will take some work to convert.

I have my Halon fire extinguisher ready. Flame away!

"You have been given Minix, a Unix V7 clone. Create 4.3BSD. Its due at the
end of the quarter."

-----------
Glen Overby
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