[OpenAFS-devel] Re: Integrating OpenAFS into Linux (and RedHat)

[Derek Atkins]

Agreed...

-derek

Nathan Neulinger <nneul@umr.edu> writes:

> Derek Atkins wrote:
> > 
> > Nathan Neulinger <nneul@umr.edu> writes:
> > 
> > > Ah... Yeah, coda is different. Coda is implemented such that the kernel
> > > module is just an relay to the user space coda/venus daemon. I believe
> > > xfs in Arla is the same way. They generalized the filesystem interface,
> > > and then a user space task simply attaches to the kernel device node to
> > > provide the actual filesystem support.
> > 
> > Ahh, well, I suppose we could do something like that, then...  I'm
> > not sure *I* want to do that, tho :)
> 
> It does obviously mean a performance hit. But - it would certainly be a
> useful option, i.e. allow a linux afsd option that would simply attach
> to an XFS or CODA device instead of loading a kernel module. That way,
> you get the benefit of having AFS be universally available without a
> kernel mod, and anyone else who wants a performance boost could just go
> and load the kernel module directly.
> 
> The XFS approach by arla does have one definite benefit - it makes
> porting to new architectures extremely easy. All you have to do is port
> the xfs module. Granted, you have something similar in porting libafs.o,
> but it's alot easier to port and maintain a simple small module that it
> is to maintain a large one like libafs. One other benefit of the arla
> approach is that you can even run arlad WITHOUT connecting to the kernel
> - so it acts like an ftp client for testing purposes. If I remember
> correctly, the arla team has the pure userspace portion working on
> almost any autoconfable system, it's just the kernel portion that needs
> ported.
> 
> -- Nathan
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Nathan Neulinger                       EMail:  nneul@umr.edu
> University of Missouri - Rolla         Phone: (573) 341-4841
> CIS - Systems Programming                Fax: (573) 341-4216

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/      PP-ASEL      N1NWH
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