[OpenAFS] Something like $HOME in afs?

[Charles Duffy]

Paul Johnson wrote:
> We are running openafs 1.4.0 with Linux clients.
>
> I want to script a process for shutdown time so that the dot files
> from the Linux $HOME directory are copied to the user's openafs space.
>  But I can't figure how to ask openafs "where is that user's space?".
> <...>
> Users authenticate and they can find these things under
> /afs/ku.edu/usr/pols.  If everybody were under the same directory, it
> would be easy.
>   
AFS is just a filesystem[*]. Arguably, asking it to know about users'
home directories is like asking ext2 or ext3 to know about users' home
directories -- it's Someone Else's Problem, and how you solve it is an
administrative issue.

At my site, the actual home directory ($HOME) points straight into AFS;
this is a fairly usual way of doing things. Since you *don't* do it this
way, you've got some options:

- Stuff this information into a directory service like LDAP
- Have a single directory on AFS that has symlinks to the "real"
locations of everyones' usernames
- Throw together some other homegrown solution


[*] - Okay, AFS is a bunch of things besides a filesystem -- but it
*isn't* a directory service.