news@rlvd.UUCP (04/02/87)
I am having problems putting the Newcastle Connection (NC) distributed file system on a Pyramid 98X computer. Does anyone have any experience of doing this that might be useful to me? Initially the Pyramid will be used as an NC server only. The Pyramid does not function correctly as an NC server because it has a nonstandard directory format which the NC cannot seem to make any sense out of; even the manual page (man 3 directory) claims that the directory format is "non-obvious". The problem can be seen by Newcastle Connecting to the Pyramid from another machine and typing ls. Some files (about 1/2 of them) get missed out in an apparently random fashion. Any advice, tips etc. would be welcome (does anyone, anywhere have the Newcastle Connection working on a Pyramid???). Ian Gunn UK JANET : ian@uk.ac.rl.vd Rutherford Appleton Laboratory UUCP : ..!mcvax!ukc!rlvd!ian Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX ARPA : @ucl.cs.arpa:ian@vd.rl.ac.uk England. 'phone : (0235) 21900 ext: 5707
guy@gorodish.UUCP (04/05/87)
> The Pyramid does not function correctly as an NC server because it has >a nonstandard directory format which the NC cannot seem to make any sense >out of; That depends on your definition of "nonstandard". Yes, it's different from the directory format used by V6, V7, 4.1BSD, S3, and S5. However, it is used by such minor players in the computer industry as DEC (in Ultrix-32) and HP (in some versions of HP-UX), as well as a number of other companies such as Sequent, Gould, Celerity, and a certain Mountain View-based workstation maker.... 4.2BSD replaced the V7 file system with a new one; one thing that was changed was the directory entry format. The new directory format supports file names up to 255 characters long. Note that no published UNIX-derived standard specifies the directory format. Both the IEEE POSIX standard, and Volume 3 of the System V Interface Definition, specify that directories should be read using routines very similar to the routines added in 4.2BSD for reading directories. The directory entry format in those standards is actually slightly closer to the 4.2BSD format than to the V7 format; strings are guaranteed to be null-terminated in those standards and in the 4.2BSD directory format, but not in V7. > Any advice, tips etc. would be welcome (does anyone, anywhere have the >Newcastle Connection working on a Pyramid???). Or a VAX running Ultrix-32, or a Sequent, or a Celerity, or a Sun, or a Gould, or.... If the Newcastle Connection passes V7-flavored directory entries over the wire, you have a problem, as this would restrict file names to 14 characters. If it has a different format, somebody may have built a version of the directory-reading code to handle 4.2BSD directories. Then again, the Pyramid (as well as a number of the other machines listed above, and a number of machines running S5, and some machines not even running UNIX) supports NFS as well. You might be able to use NFS here if you can get it for all the machines you're interested in.
lindsay@cheviot.UUCP (04/07/87)
In article <16184@sun.uucp> guy@sun.UUCP (Guy Harris) writes: >Or a VAX running Ultrix-32, or a Sequent, or a Celerity, or a Sun, >or a Gould, or.... Ultrix - Yes, Sun - Yes, Gould - yes........ >If the Newcastle Connection passes V7-flavored directory entries over >the wire, you have a problem, as this would restrict file names to 14 >characters. If it has a different format, somebody may have built a >version of the directory-reading code to handle 4.2BSD directories. The NC (unlike other systems I could mention) does not attempt to force you to have a model of directories that your system may not support naturally. If you are on a V7 system you see V7 style directories, if you are on a 4.2 system you see 4.2 style directories. Yes there are some impossible cases (long names for example) but generally you get what you want. -- Lindsay F. Marshall, Computing Lab., U of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK JANET: lindsay@uk.ac.newcastle.cheviot ARPA: lindsay%cheviot.newcastle@ucl-cs PHONE: +44-91-2329233 UUCP: <UK>!ukc!cheviot!lindsay "How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?"