Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsd!larryr
From: larryr@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (lawrence.m.ruane)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: network filenames
Summary: [names <-> meaning] by convention
Keywords: network transparent filesystem
Message-ID: <216@cbnewsd.ATT.COM>
Date: 16 Jun 89 05:04:07 GMT
References: <1989Jun6.000120.14888@eci386.uucp>
Reply-To: larryr@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (lawrence.m.ruane,ih,)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 39

In article <1989Jun6.000120.14888@eci386.uucp> woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods) writes:
>I see '//' as a huge kludge, 'cause it special-cases the meaning

A beautiful idea is to associate names with meanings by *convention*.
For example, while everyone (people and programs) knows the 
conventional meaning of of the name "/dev/tty", this string 
appears nowhere in the kernel.

That's why I like the "/n/host" syntax.  Such names require no 
special detection by the kernel, as "//host" does.

This idea can be extended.  If the `root' of my LAN is mounted 
on "/n", and the `root' of my company is mounted on "/c", and 
the `root' of the world is mounted on "/w", then I can get to 
my home directory (from my home machine) with any of the names:

	/usr/larryr
	/n/ihlpa/usr/larryr
	/c/ih/ihlpa/usr/larryr
	/w/att/ih/ihlpa/usr/larryr

In fact, if multiple mounts on the same mount point were possible,
the idea could be extended in the other direction too.  My home 
directory could be "/", and the root of my machine could be "/m".
Then, I could get to my home directory with any of these names:

	/
	/m/usr/larryr
	/n/ihlpa/usr/larryr
	/c/ih/ihlpa/usr/larryr
	/w/att/ih/ihlpa/usr/larryr

Extending the example given in "the Hideous Name" (presented at 
one of the 1985 Usenix conferences, I think), I can see which 
machines in the world I have an account on (including my own) with

	grep larryr /w/*/*/*/etc/passwd

Larry Ruane