[HCoop-Discuss] Replace AFS by 9P

[Matthias-Christian Ott]

Hi,
The ongoing debate on AFS shows that some members are not content with
AFS and therefore we should evaluate another network file system.

When I was member of the TIP9UG (Tokyo Inferno / Plan 9 Users Group) [1],
we used 9P [2], the default network file system on Plan 9 and Inferno. It
worked reliable and is so simple that everyone can administrate and
fix it.

For Unix-like operating systems there is npfs [3], a 9P server which
runs in user space. It is very simple to add additional authentication
mechanisms, transport layers or protocol extensions.

One could also consider to install Plan 9 or Inferno on the file system
server.

On the client-side Linux has a kernel module for 9P [4] and there is a
FUSE module for 9P [5].

The only problem I see is that 9P does not cover all file system features
of contemporary Unix-like operating systems, such as ACLs. I almost
never use these features and they could be easily added.

However, I haven't tested performance of npfs. The performance at TIP9UG
was reasonably fast though.

I believe that 9P could, as a simple network filesystem, save HCoop from
the hassle and trouble we had with AFS.

Regards,
Matthias-Christian

[1] http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/5/0intro
[2] http://www.tip9ug.jp/en/server.html
[3] http://sourceforge.net/projects/npfs/
[4] http://swik.net/v9fs
[5] http://swtch.com/plan9port/man/man4/9pfuse.html