[OpenAFS] Automatic move of volumes

[Steven Jenkins]

On 10/24/07, Derrick Brashear <shadow@gmail.com> wrote:
...
> not everyone has VMS.

*nod*, although it has been documented in public (at least some of the
pieces) for quite some time.  It seems CMU takes a similar approach,
and I suspect others out there have 'rolled their own'.  From the 'me
too's using vos release to handle versioning, it appears having a
general system more widely available would scratch a real itch.

> it has nothing to do with namespace management.
> nothing is as easy as "vos release" to copy data around.
>

It has _everything_ to do with namespace management.  In absence of
better tools, people are using vos release to do just that.  Note that
vos release isn't a bad tool; it's just being stretched beyond its
design because people need a way to do versioning of their namespaces.

I think it would be very useful if someone had the time/energy to
build a 'vms-lite' that people could adopt at their sites.  That seems
a more strategic direction than trying to extend RO capabilities.
That may be more of an openafs-devel or AFS3-standardization
discussion rather than openafs-info, though -- I don't know.

I also realize that building something like that is non-trivial.  If
people are interested in doing that, though, it seems a widely-needed
tool.

Steven