Self-certifying File System
In computing, Self-certifying File System (SFS) is a global and decentralized,
distributed file system for Unix-like operating systems, while also providing transparent encryption of communications as well as authentication. It aims to be the universal distributed file system by providing uniform access to any available server, however, the usefulness of SFS is limited by the low deployment of SFS clients. It was developed in the June 2000 doctoral thesis of David Mazières
.
Implementation
The SFS
disk file system over the network, over the specific SFS protocol. On Unix-like
systems, SFS file systems can usually be found at /sfs/hostname:hostID. When an SFS file system is first accessed through this path, a connection to the server is made and the directory is created ("automounted").
Differences
The primary motivation behind the file system is to address the shortcomings of
public-key fingerprint of the server (hence why it is called "self-certifying").[2]
In addition to the new perspective, SFS also addresses some commonly raised limitations of other distributed file systems. For example, NFS and
tamper resistance from other computers on the network, without encapsulation layers such as IPsec
.
Unlike Coda and AFS, SFS does not provide local caching of remote files and thus is more dependent on network reliability, latency and bandwidth.
See also
- Clustered file system
- Network File System (protocol)
- Coda (file system)
- Andrew File System
References
- MIT. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
- MIT. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
External links
- archive of SFS official web site (archive.org)* "Self-certifying File System: FAQ". Archived from the original on July 25, 2008.
- David Mazières (May 2000). "Self-certifying File System" (PostScript). PhD Thesis. MIT. Retrieved 2012-01-16.