It is quite clear to me know that Coda is not the general purpose file
system I was hoping it was.  It is quite clear that the Coda file system
main goal is to work well on an unreliable network and to allow for
disconnected operation.  However for my purposes the network is reliable
and I much rather have fast response times when opening new files rather
than a guarantee that the complete file will be available once it is
opened.  Thus my goals and coda goals are not the same.

It is also clear that retrieve the entire file on open is a fundamental 
design choice and changing that behavior would require parts of the Coda 
file system be reworked.  I still think that doing so will benefit Coda in 
the long one since it will make it more suitable for other applications.  
However, since I am not willing to do so I will not peruse the matter any 
further.

One Question though.  Is the current implementation of AFS the same way?  
That is does AFS also insist on reading the entire file before any parts 
of it can be access?  If so maybe I will look at AFS.  However, AFS from 
my experience AFS is a pain to deal with due to kerberos.

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http://kevin.atkinson.dhs.org