Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!david
From: david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (David Robinson)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Lookup of "." and ".."
Message-ID: <1991Jun26.204047.28889@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 26 Jun 91 20:40:47 GMT
Sender: david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (David Robinson)
Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL
Lines: 20

A question for implementors of NFS clients.  How many would break if
the NFS server stopped handling Lookup's of "." and ".."?  By handling
it would no longer return "." and ".." on readdir requests and send
back no file errors on lookups?

This would solve the security issues in exporting filesystems.  Any reasonable
NFS client already knows the handle of both the current directory and its
parent.

I do recall having to kludge in both "." and ".." for a non-Unix filesystem
in order to make Unix clients happy.  In fact early connectathon testsuites
seemed to imply that the server should return "." and ".." entries. Why
force Unix files on the world when unneccesary?  I suspect too many things
would break.  Something to explicitly specify the the V3 protocol?

	-David
-- 
David Robinson	david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov 	{decwrl,usc,ames}!elroy!david
Disclaimer: No one listens to me anyway!
"To Protect and Serve and Treat You Like a King" - New LAPD motto