[9fans] 9P or better file services for multiple platforms

[Lucio De Re <lucio.dere@gmail.com>]

I'm trying to arrive at the most elegant solution to the following
problem that does not sacrifice a great deal of efficiency. And, maybe
I need to state this, the final result must be as robust or more
robust than what I have in place currently, which has yet to let me
down, partially due to the very duplication I'd like to eliminate. I
think such robustness is possible without the excessive redundancy of
the current system.

My system mixes up Plan 9 and Linux platforms, none of them
particularly modern, in various fashion. Linux runs on workstations
(and laptops) and Plan 9 has one, sometimes more, CPU/fileservers and
a main workstation, plus a small secondary one.

My hope is to provide a central file server that fulfills reliable
file services to both Plan 9 and Linux as seamlessly as possible. I am
willing to sacrifice a few Unix features, such as file links, in that
file server, if I can dedicate it to a narrower role than to support
the full Linux environment. In Plan 9 parlance, I only need file
services, not computing capabilities and the file server is allowed to
limit some of the computing needs involved (like, say, graphics, any
multimedia stuff, even mouse use).

The question, then, is what file service will satisfy these needs,
including access control, automatic backup as provided by default
under Plan 9, etc. I am not very fond of Linux's propensity to need
daily upgrades, but Plan 9 has quirks of its own, which I would be
hard pressed to enumerate here, but we are all aware of.

If I could run the file server on a modern (or even an ancient)
version of NetBSD, I'd be even happier as NetBSD is the Unix flavour I
highly favour. But that is a bonus, not an essential.

I welcome questions that may help me give this a more concrete shape.
I'm hoping there's a definitive answer out there and all proposal will
receive my attention, I do suspect it will be a compromise solution
I'll need to consider, but that is perfectly understandable.

A big thank you to anyone who is willing to contribute.

Lucio.