Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!umd5!brl-adm!adm!aglew%fang@xenurus.gould.com
From: aglew%fang@xenurus.gould.com (Andy Glew)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Magic symlink syntax
Message-ID: <16181@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: 15 Jun 88 20:05:38 GMT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 28

..> The namei hack - variable substitution in filenames or
..> symlinks.

If you are willing to restrict yourself to very heavyweight
environments, eg. BSD/SV system wide rather than each user
individually, then you can get the same effect using symlinks,
boxes, and something like an NFS self mount.

Eg. create a single filesystem with all the important directories
like /bin symlinks to /ENVIRONMENT/bin, for example.
Create two environments, /sv containing /sv/ENVIRONMENT
and /bsd...
    NFS mount onto your own machine all the files and filesystems
that would be below /, to beneath /sv and /bsd.
    Finally, chroot (with all appropriate caveats) to /sv or /bsd
depending on which environment the user wanted to live in.

Ain't it horrible?

Don't worry, we don't do anything like that.

Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana.    1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801   
    aglew@gould.com     	- preferred, if you have MX records
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    ...!ihnp4!uiucuxc!ccvaxa!aglew  - paths may still be the only way
   
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