Andrew File System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:10, 17 September 2021

Revision as of 17:14, 11 October 2021

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{{Short description|File system for computers}}

The '''Andrew File System''' ('''AFS''') is a [[distributed file system]] which uses a set of trusted servers to present a homogeneous, ___location-transparent file name space to all the client workstations. It was developed by [[Carnegie Mellon University]] as part of the [[Andrew Project]].<ref>[http://www.cmu.edu/corporate/news/2007/features/andrew/what_is_andrew.shtml What is Andrew] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909232809/http://www.cmu.edu/corporate/news/2007/features/andrew/what_is_andrew.shtml |date=September 9, 2011 }} - part of CMU's official site chronicling the history of the [[Andrew Project]].</ref> Originally named "Vice",<ref name="garfinkel19890506">{{cite news | url=http://simson.net/clips/1989/1989.TechRev.Athena.pdf | title=Ripples Across the Academic Market | work=Technology Review | date=May–June 1989 | access-date=25 January 2016 | author=Garfinkel, Simson L. | author-link=Simson Garfinkel | pages=9–13}}</ref> AFS"Andrew" isrefers named afterto [[Andrew Carnegie]] and [[Andrew W. Mellon|Andrew Mellon]]. Its primary use is in [[distributed computing]].

== Features ==

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The file name space on an Andrew workstation is partitioned into a ''shared'' and ''local'' name space. The shared name space (usually mounted as /afs on the Unix filesystem) is identical on all workstations. The local name space is unique to each workstation. It only contains temporary files needed for workstation initialization and symbolic links to files in the shared name space.

The Andrew File System heavily influenced Version 4 of [[Sun Microsystems]]' popular [[Network File System (protocol)|Network File System]] (NFS). Additionally, a variant of AFS, the [[DCE Distributed File System|Distributed File System]] (DFS) was adopted by the [[Open Software Foundation]] in 1989 as part of their [[Distributed Computing Environment]]. Finally AFS (version two) iswas the predecessor of the [[Coda (file system)|Coda]] file system.

== Implementations ==

ThereBesides arethe fouroriginal, majora few other implementations were developed. [[OpenAFS]] was built from source released by [[Transarc]] ([[International Business Machines|IBM]]) in 2000.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080223002706/http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-afs.html Opening Up AFS]</ref> Transarc software is nowbecame deprecated and islost losing support.{{when}} [[Arla (file system)|Arla]] is an independent implementation of the AFS [[distributed file system]] developed at the [[Royal Institute of Technology]] in [[Stockholm]].

Arla was an independent implementation of AFS developed at the [[Royal Institute of Technology]] in [[Stockholm]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title= Porting the Arla file system to Windows NT (2000) |work= Workshop on Management and Administration of Distributed Environments |date= 2000 |author= Magnus Ahltorp, Love Hörnquist-Åstrand and Assar Westerlund |doi= 10.1.1.512.9570 |url= http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.512.9570&rep=rep1&type=pdf }}</ref>

A fourth implementation of an AFS Clientclient exists in the [[Linux kernel]] [[source code]] since at least version 2.6.10.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120710092252/http://lxr.linux.no/source/Documentation/filesystems/afs.txt?v=2.6.10 Linux kernel AFS documentation for 2.6.10]</ref> Committed by [[Red Hat]], this is a fairly simple implementation still in its early stages of development and therefore incomplete {{as of|2013|1|lc=on}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lxr.linux.no/linux/Documentation/filesystems/afs.txt|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120801110657/http://lxr.linux.no/linux/Documentation/filesystems/afs.txt|url-status=dead|title=LXR linux/Documentation/filesystems/afs.txt|date=1 August 2012|archive-date=1 August 2012|website=linux.no|access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref>

== Available permissions ==