29.1 Introduction

29.1 Introduction

In this chapter we describe NFS, the Network File System, another popular application that provides transparent file access for client applications. The building block of NFS is Sun RPC: Remote Procedure Call, which we must describe first.

Nothing special need be done by the client program to use NFS. The kernel detects that the file being accessed is on an NFS server and automatically generates the RPC calls to access the file.

Our interest in NFS is not in all the details on file access, but in its use of the Internet protocols, especially UDP.