1.1. What is Coda?

Coda is a distributed file system, i.e. it makes files available to a collection of client computers as part of their directory tree, but ultimately maintains the authoritative copy of the file data on servers. Coda has some features that make it stand out: it supports disconnected operation , i.e. full access to a cached section of the file space during voluntary or involuntary network or server outages. Coda will automatically reintegrate the changes made on disconnected clients when reconnecting. Furthermore, Coda has read-write, failover server replication, meaning that data is stored and fetch from any of a group of servers and Coda will continue to operate when only a subset of all servers is available. If server differences arise due to network partitions Coda will resolve differences automatically to a maximum extent possible and aid users in repairing what can't be done automatically. Coda is very differently organized from NFS and Windows/Samba shares. Coda does have many similarities to AFS and DCE / DFS .