Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!ames!ncar!ico!vail!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: NFS on 386 UNIX Machines
Summary: long names - maybe a good idea, maybe not (yet)
Message-ID: <1989Oct27.040058.5123@ico.isc.com>
Date: 27 Oct 89 04:00:58 GMT
References: <915@fiver.UUCP> <5060@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <347@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation
Lines: 30

dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) writes:
> ... johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes:
> >-- 386/ix doesn't understand BSD filesystems.  In particular, filenames with
> >more than 14 characters and symbolic links don't work.
> 
> I was quite surprised a few months ago when I was working on an RT running
> AIX 2.2.1, that while it didn't support filenames with >14 characters on its
> local filesystem, it treated long filenames found on NFS mounted BSD
> filesystems with complete equanimity, as did the application programs...
> ...Not a bad hint for ISC.

While it would be nice in some cases, it also introduces some problems.
It's a minor win.  IMHO, it's probably not worth the effort.  (MHO is not
ISC policy, BTW:-)  If you're in a mixed BSD/SysV environment, it would
allow you to reach out to files with long names.  But you're going to have
unhappy results if you start stirring those filenames into the local (SysV)
environment, so it's likely to bite you sooner or later.

There's also the matter of V.4 being just around the bend.  I know, you
don't want to be waiting around for some future release that hasn't even
been announced...but think about the real value of the feature (as per
previous paragraph) and the relatively short term over which it would
matter...there are probably better things for us to spend our time on.

(In other words, yes, if we had as much time as we needed and nothing else
to do...which is like the joke about simplifying physics problems:  "Given
a frictionless elephant whose mass can be neglected...":-)
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com    uucp: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd     (303)449-2870
   ...No DOS.  UNIX.