Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!XX.LCS.MIT.EDU!SRA
From: SRA@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU (Rob Austein)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: syntax of remote pathnames?
Message-ID: <SRA.12478628998.BABYL@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Date: 17 Mar 89 04:36:00 GMT
References: <mckee@corwin.ccs.northeastern.edu>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 21

One syntax that's often used is

    hostname:pathname

eg, "Bigboote.LCS.MIT.EDU:/etc/passwd",
    "Reagan.AI.MIT.EDU:>File-Server>FOO.Lisp",
    "XX.LCS.MIT.EDU:XX:<SRA>LOGIN.CMD".

This syntax has been used by the the generic filesystem code in the
Lisp Machine family of systems (MIT CADR, LMI, TI, Symbolics) for a
long time, and was used by some commands (rcp et al) in BSD 4.2.

Of course, there will always be filesystem syntaxes that will confuse
the simpleminded program, eg "MC.LCS.MIT.EDU:PK0:SRA;SRA LOGIN" (the
space is a required part of the filename syntax, and the local portion
could equally well have been written as "PK0: SRA; SRA LOGIN").

Perhaps just stating the hostname and a string to ask that host for in
plain English wasn't such a bad idea after all!

--Rob