Remote File System

The Remote File System (RFS) was a distributed file system developed by AT&T in the 1980s. It was first delivered with UNIX System V Release 3 (SVR3).

Compared to NFS it was superior on purely logical grounds,Fact|date=February 2007 preserving UNIX file system semantics across the network.Unlike NFS (before version 4), the RFS server maintains state to keep track of how many times a file has been opened, if any process has locked the file, etc. RFS was a product from Bell Laboratories.People involved in the creation of RFS: Andrew P. Rifkin, Michael P. Forbes, Richard L. Hamilton, Michael Sabrio, Suryakanta Shah, and Kang Yueh.

Features

* Provides complete UNIX/POSIX file semantics. (File locking, etc)
* Allows mounting of devices across the network (e.g "/dev/cdrom" can be accessed remotely)
* Transparent access to files. Users needn't know where a file is located.

Remote system call interface

* ACCESS
* SYSACCT
* CHDIR Change directory
* CHMOD Change file mode
* CHOWN Change file owner
* CHROOT
* CLOSE Close a file
* CREAT Create a file
* EXEC Execute a file
* EXECE Execute a file with an environment
* FCNTL
* FSTAT Stat a file using a file descriptor
* FSTATFS Stat a file system using a file descriptor
* IOCTL
* LINK First half of link() operation
* LINK1 Second half of link() operation
* MKNOD Make block or character special file
* OPEN Open a file
* READ Read from a file
* SEEK Seek on a file
* STAT Stat a file using pathname
* STATFS Stat a file system using pathname
* UNLINK
* UTIME
* UTSSYS Return information about a mounted files
* WRITE
* GETDENTS Read directory entries in a file system
* MKDIR
* RMDIR
* SRMOUNT Server side of remote mount
* SRUMOUNT Server side of remote unmount
* COREDUMP Dump core request
* WRITEI Internal form of write system call
* READI Internal form of read system call
* RSIGNAL Sendremote signal
* SYNCTIME Synchronize time between machines
* IPUT Free a remote inode
* IUPDATE Update a remote inode
* UPDATE Write modified buffers back to disk.

See also

*AppleTalk
*Network File System
*Samba
*Server Message Block
*WebDAV