Network Filesystems

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NFS Sun’s Network Filesystem (NFS) is the preferred method of file sharing for networks of Unix or Linux computers. The Linux kernel includes both NFS client support

Coda This is an advanced network filesystem that supports features omitted from NFS. These features include better security (including encryption) and improved caching.

SMB/CIFS The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, which has been renamed the Core Internet Filesystem (CIFS), is the usual means of network file sharing among Microsoft OSs. The Linux kernel includes SMB/CIFS client support, so you can mount SMB/CIFS shares. You can configure your Linux computer as an SMB/CIFS server using the Samba package (http://www.samba.org). The filesystem type code for SMB/CIFS shares is smbfs.

NCP The NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) is NetWare’s file sharing protocol. As with SMB/CIFS, Linux includes basic NCP client support in the kernel, and you can add separate server packages to turn Linux into an NCP server. NCP’s filesystem type code is ncpfs.