(was slashes, now NFS devices)

[Melinda Shore]

In article <BZS.91Feb22163556 at world.std.com> bzs at world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes:
>The proper (ahem/IMHBCO) approach to this is just another device type
>in the file system (it could either be totally new, or just some sort
>of new use of a pre-allocated major/minor) which means "I am a remote
>device".

The Goddess knows that I am NO fan of CMU's RFS, but their naming
conventions provide a simple facility for doing this.  Arbitrary
mount points are not permitted, and remote files are referred to
as something like /../remotehost/thisdir/thatdir/filename (yup,
/.. and / are different directories).  So, /../remotehost/dev/rmt0
refers to the tape drive on the remote host and provides access to
remote devices without having to create a shell on the remote.

I still prefer that a remote filesystem allow for arbitrary mount
points.
-- 
               Software longa, hardware brevis
Melinda Shore                                 shore at mtxinu.com
mt Xinu                              ..!uunet!mtxinu.com!shore