Coda File System

Re: newbie questions re: coda media server

From: Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen_at_xemacs.org>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:02:55 +0900
>>>>> "Mark" == Mark Phalan <mphalan_at_o2.ie> writes:

    Mark> Are there any plans to fetch and cache blocks if the file is
    Mark> too big to fit in the cache?

No.  That can't possibly work while you are disconnected.

If you want features that can only possibly be supported while
connected, then you don't want Coda.  Coda is not a network or
distributed file system as conventionally conceived.  It is a caching
file system which allows a group of weakly connected hosts to
transparently access a much larger "external" file system than any
given client actually holds while connected, while permitting
disconnected operation on the files in the cache with (almost)
transparent semantics of operating on the "external" file system.

In many ways, Coda is more like an automated CVS without past version
history than it is like SMB or NFS.  At least, I used to use CVS as a
file replicator across hosts, but switched to Coda for applications
where I don't care about the version history.  Rather, I'm interested
in ensuring that the version on every host I use is always current (up
to the last connection).

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.
Received on 2004-01-27 09:05:54