Network File System (NFS) is a protocol developed by Sun Microsystems and defined in RFC 1094, 1813, 3010 and 3530, a network file system which allows a computer to access files over a network as if they were on its local disks.
The original versions 2 and 3 of the protocol used User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and were meant to keep the protocol "stateless." A later version 4 would address some of the performance issues and would rely on a "stateful" protocol.
NFS is strongly associated with UNIX systems, its original implementation, though it can be used on any platform such as 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.
"Network File System" is also often used as a generic term - see File system for other examples.
External Link
This article contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.