Bob Dew says:
> Excerpts from mail: 7-Jul-94 Re: e-mail over AFS ! Marc
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (450)
>
> > Could someone explain to me why some people want to do *everthing*
> > through the filesystem?
>
> I don't think its just a few people who think that way. Unified,
> globally scalable services using a distributed file system and
> single-login authentication is the model which Novell, Microsoft, the
> OSF and probably most other significant computer network players have
> adopted as a strategic architectural direction.
And with architectural geniuses like Novell and Microsoft behind the
idea IT MUST BE A WINNER!
Now, actually, sarcasm aside, file systems are indeed a very powerful
way of managing information in an operating system -- notions like
procfs, kernfs, and others are really neat. However, this is not a
case of trying to make something masquerade as a file system. This is
a case of trying to do distributed communication inappropriately
through a filesystem. I am reminded of the man who notes that mmap is
a powerful way to share memory, and nfs is a powerful way to share
files, and decides that a great way to share memory over the network
is using mmaped nfs files. Shared /usr/spool/mails aren't nearly this
bad, but the principle is the same -- large amounts of file locking
and other communication ends up being serialized through a single
distant machine on your network, and thanks to AFS semantics, things
aren't even completely compatible with the "old way" of doing things
anyway.
At first blush, it seems like a great idea to make /usr/spool/mail in
your distributed file system. However, frankly, /usr/spool/mail is
actually a problem child even on a single machine. Having large
numbers of MTAs and users all serialized through a single server
somewhere out there during their already marginal access of a badly
designed way of delivering mail to users is asking for trouble. kpop
is very clean, however, and has lots of added advantages. Why not use
the solution thats known wo work nicely?
> Maybe its silly to put /usr/spool/mail within AFS. But the concept of
> distributing a campus mail service is rich and worth pursuing.
Distributing it is fine. There is a decent distributed solution around
-- pop or kpop.
Perry
