Wizard-level questions

[Michael K. Gschwind]

In article <1991Jan26.142403.22812 at mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert at mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>In article <16048 at sdcc6.ucsd.edu> cs163wcr at sdcc10.ucsd.edu (I support the U.N.) writes:
>>[1] Can you access a file by its i-node number?  Something like
>>	(for C code) FILE *iopen (int inode, char *mode) ?
>
> I hope not.  Otherwise permissions on directories wouldn't do much.  I
>do think the system design would have been cleaner if you only accessed
>by i-node number, and mapping filename to inode was done outside the kernel.

This is what is done on Apollo's DomainOS UNIX-clone. It is however a
security nightmare. Things like chroot don't work, so you can't support
anonymous ftp et al. Neat idea, but isn't fully UNIX compatible.

>But I doubt that I have many supporters in this "keep the kernel small" view.

I guess there are _lots_ of supporters of this view. The only problem is
that you must strive to keep the security stuff (e.g., filename
translation) INSIDE the kernel, or else you must find a way to write 
trusted servers, libraries etc.

			bye,
				mike


Michael K. Gschwind, Institute for VLSI-Design, Vienna University of Technology
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