>From the docs, isn't it supposed to be unusable from the console? Or this >is just a relic and now any system can be a file server?
that's a different, older implementation of file service, using its own kernel; it's described by fs(4). it is still separately available and maintained, but the .iso plan 9 distribution installs fossil and venti. (i think venti is optional but i might be wrong.) venti and fossil run under the normal Plan 9 cpu/terminal kernel. on a cpu server, the kernel is multi-user (often runs processes owned by different users). on a terminal, the kernel normally has processes and devices owned by the user name you type when you start it. essentially the difference is one of configuration; they are built from the same source. you can run fossil and venti under either of those. to get the effect of the old arrangement, you can run the file system programs on a cpu server of their own, with little else running, and have all the other terminals and cpu servers mount the file system from that machine. that's what i do at home and at work. you can also run everything on one machine that's a terminal. my notebook is set up that way, although i'll boot with root from the net when i'm at home or at work. more possibilities, probably not useful to you: there is kfs(4), an older program that runs under the cpu/terminal kernels serving a file system implementation similar to that of the original specialised file server kernel, but different in a few details, with an slightly different disk format; and now also cwfs(4) which is essentially the full original file server as a program running under the cpu/terminal kernels, with the same disk format. fossil, kfs and cwfs all optionally allow interaction with their `consoles' through a file in /srv.
