[OpenAFS] [possibly dumb question] volume must occupy entire OS-level filesystem?

[Adam Megacz]

Please forgive me if I misunderstand this; I come at the AFS thing
more from the protocol/programming angle than the IT professional /
storage administrator angle.  Specifically, I know much less about the
actual OpenAFS code than the protocol it implements.

It seems that OpenAFS insists that an AFS volume be served from the
mount point of a physical OS-level partition.  In other words, if I
mount some filesystem on /foo, I can't serve AFS files out of
/foo/bar/vicepa -- AFS wants to own the entire partition.

Is this correct?  If so, what is the reason for this restriction?  If
the reason is performance, is that the *only* reason (ie could this
restriction be lifted if performance were not a concern)?

Thanks,

  - a

-- 
PGP/GPG: 5C9F F366 C9CF 2145 E770  B1B8 EFB1 462D A146 C380

Q: "Won't the pendulum swing back?"
A: "It has never been a pendulum. Think tectonic plates instead."
                                              -- from patrick.net