Re: Filesystems -- was: Linux in a School envrionment

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I agree in part ... if Linux had an administration tool simmilar to
>Nwadmin it would be a smashing success ... but the true beauty of NetWare is
>NDS powered by a btreive database engine ... giving you the ability to set
>file rights for a single user ( not group dependent) 

That is dependent on the filesystem.  I don't think ext2 supports it.

However, I've been doing some reading about XFS lately, and XFS 
supports ACL's (Access Control Lists  -- setting permissions on 
individual files on a per-user basis).

Quote from SGI:  http://linux-xfs.sgi.com/projects/xfs/index.html 

"...the XFS filesystem for Linux has made significant progress
 since its Beta release in September 2000. Although there are
 still some features to be finalized, the Beta code is currently
 stable in a majority of normal environments. We welcome and
 encourage interested users to try out the code aggressively in
 your test environments so that we can work through the final
 stage of the development and bug fixes to meet your production
 needs. ...

 High reliability and performance from journaling and other
 advanced algorithms ...

 Sub-second filesystem recovery after crashes or power failures 
 (never wait for long fscks) ..."


XFS appears to have some advantages over ReiserFS & ext3 too:

  A)  No kNFSd issues (unlike ReiserFS)
  B)  Runs on kernel 2.4 (unlike Ext3)
  C)  Designed for RH7/GLibC2.2 (LFS/no 2GB limitations)
  D)  Already proven on Irix (big one!)
  E)  Complete replacement utilities (in-line with Ext2)
  F)  The most comprehensive features of the 4 JFS for Linux


PLUS, SGI has modified the Redhat 7 Anaconda installer to
include support for XFS in the install process!!!  

Combine that with 2.4 kernel RPM's with XFS support, and we 
could make a new and improved "BSware-PRO" edition!  :-)    
Any interest?

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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