Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264218AbTEPAac (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 May 2003 20:30:32 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264293AbTEPAab (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 May 2003 20:30:31 -0400 Received: from smtp3.server.rpi.edu ([128.113.2.3]:60322 "EHLO smtp3.server.rpi.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264218AbTEPAa3 (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 May 2003 20:30:29 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 20:43:11 -0400 To: Linus Torvalds , David Howells From: Garance A Drosihn Subject: [OpenAFS-devel] Re: Alternative to PAGs Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, , Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2508 Lines: 51 I can see some advantage to the ability to switch into an already-existing pag, so let me switch sides for a moment. If someone came to me and would pay me to implement "something just like a PAG, except that there must be an ability to join an already-existing PAG", I would suggest the following: 1) Creation of PAGs are handled exactly as they are now. Lightweight creation, etc. 2) If the user of some already-existing PAG wants that PAG to be "join-able", they run some special command which registers the PAG with a name, and with the details of how to authenticate to that named-PAG. One could select from a variety of authentication methods. 3) Then from some other process (which would probably already have a PAG) could run a special setpag command, and if they provide the proper authentication, then that process would switch to the already-existing pag. This isn't quite what Linus is looking for, but it provides some of it without adding much overhead to the most common usage of PAGs. Step #2 should probably require that the user can not register a name for a PAG unless they pass some authentication test to prove that they can. Ie, you don't want me to walk up to your terminal, gesture excitedly at some fire across the street, and then type in the 'register pag' command while you're not paying attention to me or your computer. Users won't know or care about the range for PAG values, because they will only be dealing with the "registered names" for a PAG. I still would prefer PAGs as they are, because I think this still opens up some issues that I'd prefer to leave closed. But I think that would be doable. I should probably also apologize to David here, because he's actually doing useful work. Here I'm just butting in because it would be so great to see PAG support as part of linux, instead of something we have to keep sticking on the side of it. RPI is moving our AFS cell to redhat linux servers, and the easier it is for openafs on linux, the nicer it will be for us. -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/