Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!ka
From: ka@june.cs.washington.edu (Kenneth Almquist)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: What kinds of things would you want in the GNU OS?
Keywords: Distributed file system
Message-ID: <8380@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 30 May 89 08:51:29 GMT
References: <106326@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 21

James Buster asks what kinds of things should be in th GNU kernel:

> Networking:	NFS? RFS? Something better?

Something better.  I would like to see a distributed file system along
the lines of the Sprite file system or the Apollo Domain file system.
The features I want are:

    1)	A single global name space.  A file should have the same name
	regardless of which system it is being accessed from.

    2)	The semantics of file operations should be the same regardless
	of whether the file is local or not.

    3)	If a file cannot be accessed because the system it is on is
	down or unreachable, the user should be notified quickly.

    4)	The ability to replicate file system that change infrequently,
	to increase availability.

Kenneth Almquist