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From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: //host vs "mount point"
Message-ID: <6321@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Dec-87 19:21:56 EST
Article-I.D.: ncoast.6321
Posted: Wed Dec  2 19:21:56 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Dec-87 06:47:10 EST
References: <648@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <1668@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <38c15248.4580@hi-csc.UUCP> <9559@mimsy.UUCP> <411@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery)
Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh
Lines: 30

As quoted from <411@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> by jgm@K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (John Myers):
+---------------
| Just to add to the confusion, let me put in a plug in for the Carnegie-Mellon
| University Computer Science Department's syntax:
| 
| /../host
| 
| "/.." is known as the "super-root".  It seems logically consistent to me...
+---------------

Altos WorkNet:  @host/path.  The machines on the network need not be mounted,
just named as being on the network.  Requests are passed off by the kernel
to user-mode network servers.  If you happen to want V8 syntax, "ln -s @ /n/"
and then "/n/host/foo" will be handled properly (as @host/foo).

All is not roses, however.  Personally, I think both syntaxes are ugly, but it
*does* work and it is flexible.  (The @ syntax screws up programs like "emacs"
which generate full pathnames, and the symlink solution doesn't change what
pwd says.  As for the symlink itself, it looks to me like an ugly special case
construction (that trailing slash on the "/n/" is REQUIRED).)

I rather suspect that network disks are as slippery as symlinks:  There just
isn't a solution.  I *do* think the V8 syntax (/n/host) is nicest of the
no-mount systems, but the mounted network disks are most flexible.  (This
may say more about changes needed to "mount" than about networked file systems,
however.  Anyone want to recap "generalized mounts"?)
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery		      necntc!ncoast!allbery@harvard.harvard.edu
 {hoptoad,harvard!necntc,cbosgd,sun!mandrill!hal,uunet!hnsurg3}!ncoast!allbery
			Moderator of comp.sources.misc