[OpenAFS-devel] Java API for AFS Admin

[Shyh-Wei Luan]

We briefly discussed this topic earlier.  A list of Javadoc HTML files
defining a proposed Java API for AFS Admin are now available at
http://grand.central.org/twiki/bin/edit/AFSLore/JavaAdminAPI for your
review.  We especially look forward to the feedback from experienced
administrators as well as those who have written tools for managing AFS.

Here is the rationale for having such an API:

In large AFS environments, local tools are frequently developed to manage
AFS more effectively.  Today these tools are usually written in scripts.
These scripts typically issue AFS commands and parse the command output.
This is not a good practice as command output are not well defined. Their
format or even contents can change in new releases.  An AFS Admin API is
needed. Today some internal C libraries exist and are used by the AFS
command suite as well as the Windows Admin GUI.  But they are not clearly
defined for external use.

Here a set of Java Admin API is proposed. The goal is to make the API
suitable not only for administrators to write custom AFS automation tools
but also for developers to write general and powerful tools for easy and
efficient AFS management.

Shyh-Wei Luan