An overview of the Internet File System

The Internet File System (IFS) extends the scope of file systems from LANs to the Internet, encouraging collaboration and information dissemination on a much broader scale. In addition, Internet resources (e.g. Web pages, Gopher Information, and Network News) become files in IFS, allowing file system APIs and existing tools and commands to be used to manipulate Internet resources just like conventional files. IFS is unique in that it introduces a logical layer between applications and operating systems, and integrates widely-used protocols like FTP, HTTP, GOPHER, NNTP, RSH in this layer. The system is transparent to applications and operating systems, and requires no modification of software nor change in management of Internet file servers. A prototype of IFS is currently running on Sun OS 4.1, Solaris, HP-UX, SVR4, SGI MIPS, and Linux.