Contents
XFS32 Version 1.0
Network File System (NFS) Client
September 21, 1994

Copyright (C) 1994, Robert Juhasz.  All Rights Reserved.

Contents

Introduction

Installing XFS32

(PC)NFSD

Mounting

Authentication

Other Commands

Appendix

Registration

Warranty

Help File


Introduction

XFS32 is a Network File System (NFS) Client implementation for  PC's running Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Microsoft TCP/IP-32. It uses the network-wide file sharing of other  systems and provides in this way the enormous disk resources of modern  workstations. Because the file sharing mechanism is tranparent, you can  manipulate remote files by traditional PC software like file managers,  word processors etc.


Installing XFS32

The XFS32 distribution contains following files:

SETUP.EXE	Windows Setup application
SETUP.INF	Setup info
XFS32.EXE	The redirector
VXFS.386	Virtual device (version 1.2)
XFSTOOL.EXE	DOS command line user interface
XFSINIT.EXE	The 'automounter'
XFS32FMX.DLL	File Manager Extension (version 1.45)
XFS32.HLP	Help file
ORDER.FRM	Order form

If you're using SETUP.EXE, the files are copied into the Windows directory (VXFS.386 is placed into the System directory). A PATH modification  is not required. SETUP modifies the following files (see also *.INI):

WIN.INI: new printer interfaces,

SYSTEM.INI: entry for VXFS.386

WINFILE.INI: entry for XFS32FMX.DLL, the file manager extension.

AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS are not touched: please add theLASTDRIVE=Z directive to your CONFIG.SYS and run, if you wish,XFS32.EXE from your AUTOEXEC.BAT. XFS32.EXE can also be started by a batch file which also starts Windows.

Microsoft TCP/IP-32 must be installed at the moment you begin with  the XFS32 setup.


(PC)NFSD

Because a PC running MS-DOS (usually) doesn't provide any security mechanism, there must be other possibilities to authenticate a MS-DOS user before using network-wide NFS resources. Sun Microsystems, Inc. has developed an  UNIX RPC program that allows a simple user authentication for PCs: pcnfsd. The pcnfsd daemon is not part of the XFS distribution but can be obtained  from several places (see ftp sites).

Installing rpc.pcnfsd


Mounting

Before you begin to mount the drives, you have to config your NFS-server(s)  to export the directories you want to mount with XFS. Please consult the Administration Manuals of your Operating System to find out how to export file systems.

Mount a Drive

Mount a Printer

Unmounting Drives/Printers


Authentication

Mounting drives/printers without an user authentication presets the access rights of the user nobody, uid = gid = -2. The login dialog of the file manager extension authenticates the user by exchanging username and password against new uid/gid values obtained over pcnfsd.  These values can be used for

re-authenticating already mounted drives/printers and/or

mounting new drives/printers.

The authentication is valid during one dialog instance only: when the user leaves the mount dialog or the login dialog, the uid/gid are preset  to nobody. Because the mount dialog allows multiple mounts during one instance, the user can reuse the authentication values until closing  the dialog.


Other Commands

XFSTOOL

Setting the Time Zone

Unloading XFS32.EXE


Appendix

Error Messages

Changes to *.INI Files

Format of XFS32.INI

Compatibility

Trademarks

Some FTP Sites


Registration

The XFS Network File System Client is distributed as shareware. You can test this software as long you want, but if you decide to work with it, you must  pay the registration fee.

The current registration prices are:

Educational users:	US $ 15 / CPU
Business users:	US $ 25 / CPU
Site license:

Quantity	Discount
3--10	10%
11--20	20%
21--200	30%
201+	50%
If you are a reseller, and you would like to redistribute XFS32, please contact the author.

   Robert Juhasz

   Auf der Suehle 14

   33102 Paderborn - Germany

   Internet:  robertj@lwfws1.uni-paderborn.de

   CIS:       100045,2433

   Fax:       +49 5251 55764

Order Form


Warranty

This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. If you choose to use XFS32, you assume all risk.

IN NO EVENT SHALL Robert Juhasz BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING  FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY  OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION  WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.


Installing rpc.pcnfsd

Actually there are 2 versions of rpc.pcnfsd available. XFS uses only  features of the 1st version (which are also included in the 2nd version).

The 1st version of rpc.pcnfsd needs:

a spool directory for pending print jobs,

a printer utility (lpr on 4.3BSD or lp on SYSV),

valid /etc/printcap entries for printers used by XFS or       something equivalent on SYSV.

The spool directory is a command line argument of rpc.pcnfsd.  Note, that this directory must also be exported to your XFS clients.

The printer utility can be choose in the Makefile or can be directly  inserted in the source code (pcnfsd.c).

Example


Mount a Drive

Drives are mounted interactively by the file manager. The mount dialog, called by the XFS32 menu, provides a lot of options which are described in the next sections.

Server:/filesystem

Local Drives

Flags

Other Options

XFSTOOL Command Line Syntax


Mount a Printer

Printers are mounted with the same file manager dialog as used for drives. The options Mount Printer switches the dialog into the printer mode.

Server:printer

Local Interface

Flags

Other Options

Connecting a Printer to a XFS32 Device

XFSTOOL Command Line Syntax


Unmounting Drives/Printers

The Unmount menu command of XFS32's file manager extension allows selective disconnecting of Drives/Printers. Please note that theDevices list box supports multiple selections.

The Persistent option will suppress reusing the connection(s) when Windows starts again.

XFSTOOL Command Line Syntax


XFSTOOL

XFSTOOL offers the same operations as the file manager extension, but from within a DOS window. The user can

mount/unmount drives/printers,

login/logout,

get status informations (xfstool stat),

get help by xfstool help <command>,

unload XFS32.EXE by xfstool unload.

Note: Later XFS32 versions will probably don't include XFSTOOL.


Setting the Time Zone

The time zone is set by the environment variable TZ or XTZ. The format of the TZ/XTZ variable is:

XTZ=xxx[+|-]<value>

where

xxx	Time zone name (semanticaly not evaluated by XFS).
[+|.]<value>	Time offset from GMT/UCT in hours.

Note that XFS doesn't support any daylight savings, but you can obtain this by incrementing or decrementing the time offset of the XTZ variable.


Unloading XFS32.EXE

xfstool	unload

shuts down the XFS kernel by unmounting all drives/devices and unloading XFS from the DOS memory. The unloading will fail if a TSR blocks the interrupt0x2f.


Error Messages

Host not found	The specified hostname was not found.

Operation would block	Timeout error. The server is problably not responding.

Can't mount/umount filesystem	The server denies mounting.

Unregistered RPC service	XFS32 tries to connect to an unexisting RPC service like MOUNTD, NFS or PCNFSD. A rpcinfo -p of your server should list this services.

Invalid login	What could it be?

Duplicate redirection	You're trying to overload a DOS drive letter

Invalid drive/printer	Not a valid DOS device (drive letter or printer interface).

Out of memory in redirector	XFS32.EXE is running out of memory. Reduce the actual mounted drives.

If you got strange error messages or have detected bugs, please send

an XFSTOOL STAT output,

an rpcinfo -p output of your server and

a brief description of the bug

to robertj@lwfws1.uni-paderborn.de.


Changes to *.INI Files

The setup application makes the following changes to Windows's .INI files:

WIN.INI

; XFS32 printer ports

[ports]

$LPT1:=

...

$LPT4:=

SYSTEM.INI

; XFS32 VxD

[386Enh]

device=vxfs.386

WINFILE.INI

; The file manager extension

[AddOns]

Xfs32=xfs32fmx.dll


Format of XFS32.INI

The file manager extension saves the persistent drives into XFS32.INI. When Windows starts again, XFSINIT reads this file, authenticates the user and connects the drives/printers:

XFS32.INI

[Automount]

; drive=server:/filesystem,rsize,wsize,retry,

;       umask,flags,pcnfsd_server,user

; printer=server:printer,rsize,wsize,retry

;

; Eg.:

D:=speedy:/usr/share/dos,1024,1024,4,077,4,speedy,guest

$LPT1:=speedy:laser,1024,1024,4

The only undocumented option at this moment is flags. All other were described in this document. flags can be set to:

0	supress 8+3 file name mapping

2	8+3 file name mapping (standard)

4	uppercased filesystems

Other values are undefined.


Compatibility

Tested	MS-DOS 5.0, 6.0, 6.2, MS Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, MS TCP/IP-32 1.0

Not tested	DR-DOS 6.0, Novell DOS 7 (it seems to work ok)

Think about:  THERE IS NO WARRANTY


Trademarks

  NFS is a Trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc
  MS-DOS is a Registered Trademark of Microsoft, Inc
  Microsoft Windows is a Trademark of  Microsoft, Inc
  UNIX is a Trademark of AT&T


Some FTP Sites

XFS	lwfws1.uni-paderborn.de:
	/pub/xfs
(PC)NFSD	ftp.uni-paderborn.de:
	/unix/network/daemon/pcnfsd.tar.Z
MS TCP/IP-32	ftp.microsoft.com


Order Form

  PAYMENT

  =======================================================

  1. Overseas      Cheque

  2. Europe        Cheque      EuroCheque

  3. Germany       Cheque      EuroCheque

     Ueberweisung

     Sparkasse Paderborn - BLZ 472 501 01 - Kto 12001202

  Please send your order to:

  AUTHOR

  =======================================================

  Robert Juhasz

  Auf der Suehle 14

  33102 Paderborn

  Germany

  Internet:  robertj@lwfws1.uni-paderborn.de

  CIS:       100045,2433

  Fax:       +49 5251 55764

  ORDER FORM

  =======================================================

  Number of licenses  ____________   X  US $15 / US $25

  Subtotal            ____________   X

  Discount            0.__________

  Total               ============

  SENDER

  -------------------------------------------------------

  Company  ____________________________________________

  Person   ____________________________________________

  Address  ____________________________________________

           ____________________________________________

  Country  ____________________________________________

  Phone    _________________   Fax   __________________

  Email    ____________________________________________

  Send bill by    email [  ]    smail [  ]    fax [  ]

  Date     _______________________


Example

Following example loads rpc.pcnfsd:

rpc.pcnfsd /var/spool/xfs

/var/spool/xfs must be exported in this example.

When rpc.pcnfsd is loading, it creates the spool directory and, when a PC pc1 is attempting to mount a printer, it creates the directory/var/spool/xfs/pc1. All pending jobs of this PC are stored in this directory.


Server:/filesystem

A NFS resource is defined by the server and by one of its exported filesystem (directory).

server can be

an IP address: 131.238.192.3

a real host name or an alias, both found in the HOSTS file      of your MS TCP/IP-32 package

a real host name or an alias resolved by DNS

filesystem can include the variable $user or $hostname which are substituted by the current user name or PC host name. $user can  be used to mount a home directory (if the user name coincides with a part of the home directory). $hostname is useful when mounting specific directories for the PC.

Examples:

speedy:/usr/share/dos

speedy:/homes/$user

speedy:/usr/share/dos/$hostname


Local Drives

XFS32 will show only valid drives in the Local Drives list box. If the list appears to be too short, you've probably omited the LASTDRIVE statement in CONFIG.SYS.


Flags

don't map	Suppress 8+3 name mapping,  useful when mounting a filesystem with DOS compatible file names.

upper	Useful for CD-ROMs with uppercased file names, unuseful for "normal'' filesystems.

rsize	The amount of data transfered within one read command. The default size is 1280 but XFS32 accepts sizes up to 8192.

wsize	The amount of data transfered within one write command. The default size is 1280 but XFS32 accepts sizes up to 8192. Small data transfers are cached and flushed on demand.

retry	Retransmit counter, useful for congested or slow LANs.

umask	File creation mask (octal value).


Other Options

Login	Authenticate before mounting the filesystem.

Persistent	Remount the filesystem when Windows starts again.XFSINIT.EXE will do this work automatically when it will be loaded by the AUTOSTART group. If you're planing to mount several filesystems from the same server under the same login, you'll need only one authentication.  In this case, click the Login options for the first filesystem only.

See also XFS32.INI


XFSTOOL Command Line Syntax

The command line syntax for mounting drives is

xfstool mount <drive> <server>:<directory>  [[option] [option] ... ]

Note: XFSTOOL does not support DNS (nameserver),  because it can not access this service from within DOS.

See also XFSTOOL


Server:printer

A XFS printer is defined by the server and by one of server's printer  queues listed in /etc/printcap. Because the printer access is managed  by pcnfsd the server must provide this service.


Local Interface

XFS32 will show up to 4 valid (not already mounted) printers in the Local Devices list box.


Flags

rsize	The amount of data transfered within one read command. The default size is 1280 but XFS32 accepts sizes up to 8192. However, reading from a printer spool file will never occurre (from the DOS side, of course).

wsize	The amount of data transfered within one write command. The default size is 1280 but XFS32 accepts sizes up to 8192 (printers should get 4096 only. They'll never use more). Small data transfers are cached and  flushed on demand.

retry	Retransmit counter, useful for congested or slow LANs.


Other Options

Connect...	Show the Windows Printer Control Dialog.

Persistent	Remount the printer when Windows starts again.XFSINIT.EXE will do this work automatically when it will be loaded by the AUTOSTART group.


Connecting a Printer to a XFS32 Device

The Connect... option shows the Windows Printer Control Dialog(or the Windows System Control Application, if your Windows version isn't  "native english'' [like me:)] ). Within the Printer Control, please connect you printer (eg. HP LaserJet 4) to one of the 4 $LPTn devices that you've previously mounted. The connection will  remain persistent.


XFSTOOL Command Line Syntax

The command line syntax for mounting printers is

xfstool mount $LPTn: <server>:<printer>  [[option] [option] ... ]

Note: XFSTOOL does not support DNS (nameserver),  because it can not access this service from within DOS.

See also XFSTOOL


XFSTOOL Command Line Syntax

The command line syntax for unmounting resources is

xfstool umount {<drive>  | $LPTn: | all }

See also XFSTOOL


This help file was generated using Julian Smart's TeX2RTF LaTeX to RTF converter.


The exported directories are usually part of /etc/exports and are exported with the exportfs command.


Domain Name Server; nameserver