Network File System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:41, 15 October 2004

Revision as of 22:17, 21 October 2004

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Versions 2 and 3 of the protocol used the [[User Datagram Protocol]] (UDP) and were meant to keep the protocol [[stateless]], with [[Lock (software engineering)|locking]] (for example) implemented outside of the core protocol. Version 4 includes performance improvements and introduces a [[State (computer science)|stateful]] protocol. It has thus been possible to use NFS over [[TCP]] since version 3.

NFS is strongly associated with [[UNIX]] systems, though it can be used on any platform such as [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] and [[Microsoft Windows]] [[operating systems]]. The [[server message block]] (SMB), a similar protocol, is the equivalent implementation of a [[network file system]] under Microsoft Windows.

The term "network file system" is also often used as a generic term — see [[file system]] for other examples.