A comparison of three distributed file system architectures: Vnode, Sprite, and Plan 9
Brent B. Welch · 1994
This paper compares three distributed file system architectures: the vnode architecture found in SunOS, the architecture used in the Sprite distributed file system, and the architecture used in the Plan 9 distributed file system. The emphasis of the comparison is on generalized support for remote access to file system resources, which include peripheral devices and IPC communication channels as well as regular files. The vnode architecture is an evolution of structures and interfaces used in the original, stand-alone UNIX file system. The Sprite architecture provides a network-wide shared name space and emphasizes a strong separation of the internal naming and I/O interfaces to easily provide remote access to a variety of resources. The Plan 9 architecture relies on per-process name spaces and is organized around a single file system protocol, 9P, through which a variety of devices and system services are accessed. 1 Introduction This paper compares three approaches to distributed fi...