Re: [9fans] aan documentation

[Peter Bosch <pb@research.bell-labs.com>]

>> The manpage for aan says it uses a unique protocol.  Is
>> its operation described anywhere (other than the source)?
> 
> read the source, luke.

ok, that was too quick.  here's how it works.

Aan (Always Available Network) sits on both client and server and it
reads from stdin and writes to stdout on both ends.  internally, aan
keeps state of the bytes that have been exchanged between client and
server and it acknowledges the reception of data on each message that
is exchanged between the client and server (bi-directional).  in case
a (TCP) connection breaks, aan restablishes contact from the client to
the server -- the server listens on a private port for each
established connection.  if the server does not hear from a client
within a timeout (currently a 24 hours), it cleans up state on the
server side.  aan assumes the data that it ships to be encrypted.

the idea is that you can suspend your notebook without your
9P connections to die.

peter.