Re: [9fans] New plan 9 Installation and File Systems

[Russ Cox <russcox@gmail.com>]

> I mean have it handle auth/cpu/fs), Ken's fs was designed to be run on
> a machine that acts as a file server and nothing else, though I'm
> guessing now that nothing would prevent me from using Ken's on a
> multipurpose machine.  In any case, you're right the hardware stuff is

The worm file system still requires its own dedicated machine,
so unless you're using something like VMware, the machine
won't be very multipurpose.

> In Plan 9 you can use fossil, kfs or Ken's fs, which do you choose and
> why?

Fossil is the successor to the WORM file server.
Unless you're using a real WORM jukebox, I don't see
any good reason to install the old file server.  Using Venti
on a disk instead of pretending it is a fake WORM takes
up significantly less space and lets you use vac, vacfs, etc.
as well as the file server.

I know people had stability concerns for a while, but fossil
seems solid now.  I've only seen one reported bug in the
last few months or more, and it was fixed within a day.

Fossil also gives you features not available in the WORM file
server, like long file names, the DMTMP bit, file service over TCP,
and temporary snapshots.

Russ