From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.6 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE, T_DKIM_INVALID autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 2558f322 for ; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 00:50:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id D1C3FA1AA2; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:50:36 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 983D7A1A6C; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:50:08 +1000 (AEST) Authentication-Results: minnie.tuhs.org; dkim=fail reason="signature verification failed" (1024-bit key; unprotected) header.d=thunk.org header.i=@thunk.org header.b=WrP7snq4; dkim-atps=neutral Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id B5108A1A6D; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:50:05 +1000 (AEST) Received: from imap.thunk.org (imap.thunk.org [74.207.234.97]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2CCD4A1A6C for ; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:50:05 +1000 (AEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=thunk.org; s=ef5046eb; h=In-Reply-To:Content-Type:MIME-Version:References:Message-ID: Subject:Cc:To:From:Date:Sender:Reply-To:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-ID: Content-Description:Resent-Date:Resent-From:Resent-Sender:Resent-To:Resent-Cc :Resent-Message-ID:List-Id:List-Help:List-Unsubscribe:List-Subscribe: List-Post:List-Owner:List-Archive; bh=7oykZzkGHZFc4TqLj611rEYypHjiW0IpuOiHG2f3iYY=; b=WrP7snq4dvCaPec8kX2FvKvtIU ZgHZWyZ8hNy4mU/QNiP3xn2RkK9JTibyvZeSAhyNg/N9UmBZZdj3xozFAkA+24ZpXWZMSSsSSqqvS 42YD6IkLtoNsB16E5nWOQFHF5T9kk1i8HcunV8vX/wW7P6SYsvuTen1bKyx7ZS+t8XrU=; Received: from root (helo=callcc.thunk.org) by imap.thunk.org with local-esmtp (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1g5gyo-00052N-My; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 00:50:02 +0000 Received: by callcc.thunk.org (Postfix, from userid 15806) id 778EA7A5186; Thu, 27 Sep 2018 20:50:01 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2018 20:50:01 -0400 From: "Theodore Y. Ts'o" To: Jon Forrest Message-ID: <20180928005001.GA2320@thunk.org> References: <20180927120854.u8rei%ca6c@bitmessage.ch> <633187202.18875.1538053129435.JavaMail.tomcat@india-live-be04> <36C6F216-490E-4DE4-B5EF-CED26899542F@alchemistowl.org> <4caca587-4945-c8be-5a35-c9f0ecfdd08b@gmail.com> <309587CA-4C65-4AFA-ADFF-0E99B430D191@alchemistowl.org> <52fac873-cd89-420c-c15f-b67df83aa0d3@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <52fac873-cd89-420c-c15f-b67df83aa0d3@gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.10.1 (2018-07-13) X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: tytso@thunk.org X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No (on imap.thunk.org); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Subject: Re: [TUHS] The origin of /home X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 11:49:02AM -0700, Jon Forrest wrote: > > I actually started my dataless design back when we were running Ultrix. > It worked fine there too, although back then 10Mbs networking was common > so it wasn't super speedy. Of course, neither were the workstations. MIT Project Athena had a dataless design in the late 1980's. For read-only remote file systems, Athena developed a Remote Virtual Disk (RVD) which was intergrated into BSD 4.3. RVD was a networked block device, since for read-only file systems it had better scaling properties than NFS. The Athena technical plan talks about it in a fair amount of detail. http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/atp.html By 1988 or so we had hundreds of workstations all over MIT that had its system softare deliviered via RVD, and for which no data would be stored on the public workstations, which were managed using the "cattle" metaphor. If a system wasn't working correctly, a workstation could be TFTP booted and the base software could be reinstalled automatically, and the reinstall was fast because the only files that had to be installed on the local disk was essentially enough for the system to come up on the network and to mount the RVD. - Ted