If you’re a programmer, one of the great things about Linux and Unix is that everything is a file — or at least acts like one. From devices to sockets, the “everything is a file” paradigm has served Unix well for a long, long time.
If you’re a programmer, one of the great things about Linux and Unix is that everything is a file — or at least acts like one. From devices to sockets, the “everything is a file” paradigm has served Unix well for a long, long time.
However, as high speed networks have become ubiquitous, it’s more and more likely that the “files” you want to access are on a remote machine. And unfortunately, there’s no single protocol for getting at them. Sure, NFS is an option, but it’s really only useful within a single organization.
Abstracting It
What’s really needed is an abstract interface that makes opening remote files seamless and easy. Sure, you could use cURL or libcurl (http://curl.haxx.se) in your code, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could do it at a higher level? Maybe get the Linux kernel to do the work for you? Wouldn’t it be convenient if Internet resources (like FTP directories and SSH servers) appear as though they’re part of your local filesystem? That’s where the Linux Userland Filesystem (LUFS) enters the picture.
Here’s a brief description of the package from the LUFS Web site:
LUFS is a hybrid user-space filesystem framework [that supports] an indefinite number of filesystems (localfs, sshfs, ftpfs, cardfs, and cefs are implemented so far) transparently for any application.
LUFS comes in two pieces. The first piece is a module — a filesystem driver — that plugs into the…
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