AFS (Was Re: What kinds of things would you want in the GNU OS?)

[Melinda Shore]

[]
Allow me to add a few items to the bad things list:

1)  The semantics really are different from Unix filesystem semantics.
	Permission bits take on new and twisted meanings, and links to files
	in different directories are not allowed.

2)  Directories, which you and I consider to be files, aren't treated as
	files by AFS.  *No* caching, which means that you can ls until the
	cows come home but the 80th time is not going to be any faster than
	the first.

3)  Performance.  The whole file is copied over at access time, which
	speeds up future file accesses but can turn "grep string *" into a
	fairly unpleasant experience.

4)  Disk usage.  Because entire files are copied over it can be something
	of a disk burner.

5)  Administration is somewhat (!) complex.  I have high hopes that
	someone can clean this up, though.

AFS certainly has its uses, though, and its appropriateness will depend
heavily on the environment and on the applications.
-- 
Melinda Shore                                     shore at mtxinu.com
Mt Xinu                                  ..!uunet!mtxinu.com!shore