Warp wrote:
>   I think at least some unix networked file systems support something
> similar to this. Typically if you list the contents of /home you will only
> see your own home directory and nobody else's. If you explicitly 'cd' to
> someone else's home directory (if it's allowed) it will appear under /home.

Yes. How I saw it done, however, required the configuration to be on 
each client machine, rather than being maintained strictly at the 
server. Maybe it's similar in Windows, too, tho.

Given the flexibility of UNIX in general and Linux in particular, tho, 
I'm sure any problems could be worked around without much difficulty, 
for some size company. For example, I can't imagine Google has to do 
anything to bring up a new machine beyond booting a particular CD or 
something. :-)

>> And, for example, Windows allows 
>> some home directories to be mounted locally, others to be mounted 
>> remotely on a variety of file servers, and there has to be some 
>> mechanism to tell the "client" machine which is where.
> 
>   I don't know enough about file systems to be sure, but I would be
> surprised if this wasn't supported by any unix networked file system.

I think it's more just a question of how complex a configuration you can 
specify, and not something to do with the file system as such. (Unless 
you want to have multiple home directories mounted at once, in the same 
directory, from different servers, of course.)

The main difference, I think, is that since you can't easily do 
something that isn't built in to Windows, Microsoft puts more options in 
obvious places in Windows than any given distribution of UNIX-like 
systems does. But since Linux (et al) is more open, it's probably easier 
to make it work *exactly* like you want it to. (And I think this 
analysis applies to many, many aspects of those systems, too.)

BOCTAOE.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message