[ih] Distributed file systems [was: As Flag Day approaches at CMU]

[Ole Jacobsen]

(Speaking as a graduate of Newcastle University and friend of the authors):

The Newcastle Connection (as described in the link given by Brian Carpenter)
was not only a distributed file system but also a distributed computing environment.

For example, suppose my home directory is /usr/ole on "local-machine" and I type the following:

/../remote-machine/bin/ls -l

... this will cause the ls program to run on "remote-machine", but the resulting
file listing will show files in MY home (or current) directory on "local-machine"

So a form of RPC using standard Unix syntax.

Ole


> On Sep 6, 2025, at 14:27, Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> I've never looked into the early history of distributed file systems. Was that work at MIT ever published? Was it pioneering or did someone else do it first?
> 
> My favourite paper in that area is the "Unix United" paper [1] from 1982.
> 
> [1] https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380121206 (paywalled) or
> http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/Papers-Articles/399.pdf
> Regards/Ngā mihi
>   Brian Carpenter
> 

Ole J. Jacobsen
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