Preferable file server configurations

["Kenneth H. Sinclair" <khs@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM>]

    Date: Wed, 30 Aug 89 16:39 EDT
    From: barmar@Think.COM (Barry Margolin)

	Date: Wed, 30 Aug 89 15:26 EDT
	From: khs@stony-brook.scrc.symbolics.com (Kenneth H. Sinclair)

	The software distribution for the Symbolics UX400 (7.4 ECO #3)
	incorporates a new version of the NFS Client, which now uses Symbolics
	RPC instead of its own implementation (for improved performance), and is
	better at dealing with file versions and properties.  With this
	software, using a UNIX42 file server is quite reasonable, and we in fact
	recommend using a UNIX42 system as a SYS host.

    Does it still require deciding whether a particular directory either has
    all versioned files or pseudo-versioned files?  In ILA-NFS, one can
    specify that a particular directory hierarchy should give an explicit
    version number to all files, rather than putting no version number on
    the newest version.  However, files that have versions on all copies are
    difficult to deal with using Unix facilities, while files that have a
    versionless copy are difficult for SCT to deal with.  Have you developed
    a solution that allows Unix users (GNU Emacs users, in particular) to
    edit files that SCT manages?

No, we use a more convenient but conceptually identical scheme.  You can
use UNIX tools to operate on the highest version file, but they'll write
the file out "in place" instead of incrementing the version number.

						    barmar