Different computer systems have their own ways of representing, storing and managing files. One approach to facilitate file transfers among systems in a heterogeneous networked environment is for each system to locally map files for transfer onto a virtual filestore (VFS). Conceptually, a virtual filestore provides a universal model for describing files and how they can be manipulated.
The ISO File Transfer, Access and Management (FTAM) protocol offers one such virtual filestore model. This thesis reports on the prototype implementation of a useful subset of the ISO FTAM protocol for the UNIX 4.2 BSD¹ file system. We call this implementation ubcFTAM. UNIX files, ordinarily regarded as unstructured, can be endowed with some internal structure thereby allowing the transfer of selective portions of a file. Furthermore, the implementation offers several file attributes not supported by UNIX.
ubcFTAM runs on several Sun Workstations² interconnected by a 10 Mbps Ethernet.
Some performance data of ubcFTAM are also presented. This thesis also identifies several aspects of the specifications that are ambiguous or that are inadequate, warranting further studies. Resolutions for these issues are discussed. We hope this experience will be useful to others planning to implement FTAM for UNIX systems.
¹UNIX is a registered trademark of American Telephone and Telegraph Bell Laboratories. BSD denotes Berkeley Standard Distribution
²SUN Workstation is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/26263 |
| Date | January 1987 |
| Creators | Goh, Mei Jean |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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