Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!east!hinode!geoff
From: geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: NFS Support for DOS
Message-ID: <653@east.East.Sun.COM>
Date: 1 Aug 89 20:16:20 GMT
References: <606@UALTAVM.BITNET> <409@datran2.uunet> <26558@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Sender: news@east.East.Sun.COM
Reply-To: geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Billerica MA
Lines: 53

In article <26558@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@diablo.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes:
>In article <409@datran2.uunet> smb@datran2.uunet (Steven M. Boker) writes:
>|We have been using PC-NFS from SUN microsystems to connect our DOS
>|...
>|straightforward and the utilities to be adequate. 
>
>I would add to this that the utilities are only barely adequate and
>the printer support is lousy. You only get one telnet session and ftp
>has a ridiculously low limit on the number of files you can ask it
>for.

Fixed in PC-NFS 3.0.1.

>  Telnet doesn't know how to use VGA or Super-VGA so you're stuck
>with the 24x80 terminal model. 

True, but there's a problem here. Several companies are marketing
enhanced terminal emulation products which run with PC-NFS, and
it's tough to persuade people to do that if you're going to
do a lot of enhancement in that area. So we've been focussing on the
NFS and printing side of things.

>The printer support is almost useless if you plan to use it with real
>applications like Microsoft Word (unless you customize it) or
>Microsoft Windows. There's a disagreement about end of job (MS uses
>^D, Sun gets confused by it) that makes me wish I had a Macintosh
>every time I print with PC-NFS. 

As of 3.0.1 printing with Windows, Word and most other apps is pretty solid.
Windows is a brutally unfriendly environment in which to work, and
most of the issues are undocumented, so each release breaks something new.
What we found is that in a timer-based TSR it is no good relying on
the InDos flag to see if it's safe to issue DOS calls, because if the
call comes at an "inconvenient" time for Windows you can crash the PC.
(The workaround is left as an exercise to the reader.) 

>I think some people in my group got bit by group permission problems
>using NFS but I don't know the details. 

Pre-3.0.1, PC-NFS users were only members of their primary (/etc/passwd)
group. In 3.0.1 we added code to check the "groups" YP map to identify
additional group membership. Long-term, we need to spin the "pcnfsd"
protocol to include additional user info, including group memberships
and resource profiles.

>--
>Phil Ngai, phil@diablo.amd.com		{uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil
>"The government is not your mother."


Geoff Arnold,                              Internet: garnold@East.Sun.COM
Manager, PC-NFS Engineering                UUCP: ....!sun!East!garnold
PCDS Group, Sun Microsystems Inc.