From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [IPv6:2600:3c01:e000:146::1]) by inbox.vuxu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B5226268F8 for ; Thu, 16 May 2024 16:13:14 +0200 (CEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF4E243A95; Fri, 17 May 2024 00:13:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7E2BC435E9 for ; Fri, 17 May 2024 00:13:06 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 3186A35E4CE; Thu, 16 May 2024 07:03:51 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 16 May 2024 07:03:51 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: Dan Cross Message-ID: <20240516140351.GZ9216@mcvoy.com> References: <202405160651.44G6pi8G018059@freefriends.org> <20240516073351.267351FAE3@orac.inputplus.co.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Message-ID-Hash: R7ABXRWUQN3QWM77NOTXI3UKEA7HDOO5 X-Message-ID-Hash: R7ABXRWUQN3QWM77NOTXI3UKEA7HDOO5 X-MailFrom: lm@mcvoy.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: John Cowan , coff@tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [COFF] Re: [TUHS] Re: Be there a "remote diff" utility? List-Id: Computer Old Farts Forum Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Thu, May 16, 2024 at 09:45:38AM -0400, Dan Cross wrote: > On Thu, May 16, 2024 at 7:51???AM John Cowan wrote: > > [snip] > > This appears to be a VHS vs. Betamax battle: NFS was not transparent, but Sun had far more marketing clout. However, the Manchester Connection required a single uid space (as far as I can tell), which may also have been a (perceived) institutional barrier. > > So did NFS, for that matter. > > This is one of those areas where Unix appears creaky in comparison to > Plan 9. `ssh` is all about remote access to resources, whereas plan 9 > was all about resource sharing: you'd set up a namespace with all of > the resources (exposed as files from wherever they ultimately came > from) you cared about, and then operate on those "locally"; the > resources were shared with you and access was transparent, via a > consistent, file-based interface. You want to `diff` two remote files? > Import the filesystems they're both on, mount those somewhere, and > `diff /n/host1/file /n/host2/file`. If you are all trusting, behind a firewall, like the Sun campus was: diff /net/host1/file /net/host2/file Seems pretty darn similar and you don't set up a namespace other than saying what you want to share in /etc/exports. Seems far from creaky to me, no root access required (other than setting up /etc/exports), any user can access any exported file. I was at Sun and it worked great. Granted, you needed a working NFS implementation and when I left Sun I found that Sun was really the only place that got that right in the 1990's. Linux has caught up, don't know about the rest. --lm