Subject: Re: [nfsv4] Issue46 - extend fs_location_info to support arbitrary string-based attributes

From: Jim Rees <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:28:24 -0400

So two clients both cd to the same place, /usr/local/mysql/lib, pwd says
they're in the same place, but they're not?  Are you sure that's what you
want?

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From: Nicolas Williams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:32:06 -0500

> they're in the same place, but they're not?  Are you sure that's what you

Trust Mike on this: it is what you want if those client are different
architectures and/or run different OSes, and/or are in widely (or
logically) separated parts of the network and thus need a topologically
(or logically) close server for that path.

Nico
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From: Mike Eisler <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 12:46:11 -0700 (PDT)

> they're in the same place, but they're not?  Are you sure that's what you

Yes. People can do that with automounters today. Telling them they have to
change how they operate to use NFSv4 is a non-starter.

And telling them they have to use symlinks whether it is @sys as Jim 
showed us, or normal symlinks as Nico proposed is also a non-starter.
  cd /foo/bar/symlink
  pwd

doesn't always display "/foo/bar/symlink" and that drives customers and
some apps crazy. That's why modern automounters don't do that symlink junk
inti /tmp_mnt anymore.

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From: Nicolas Williams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:00:44 -0500

> showed us, or normal symlinks as Nico proposed is also a non-starter.

BTW, it doesn't have to be symlinks.  It can be a trivial automounter
map or two (trivial because there's essentially one entry) creating the
right client-side entry point into a larger distributed namespace.

>   pwd

For Pete's sake -- substitute mount/automount for that symlink.

The result is that client/automounter configuration becomes much
simpler, moving the configuration complexity to the administration of a
domain-wide namespace (which configuration can be stored in
server-specific locations or distributed in a directory).

Nico
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