Network File System

Network File System

(networking, operating system)

(NFS) A protocol developed by Sun Microsystems, and defined in RFC 1094, which allows a computer to access files over a network as if they were on its local disks. This protocol has been incorporated in products by more than two hundred companies, and is now a de facto standard. NFS is implemented using a connectionless protocol (UDP) in order to make it stateless.

See Nightmare File System, WebNFS.

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NFS

(Network File System) The file sharing protocol in a Unix network. This de facto Unix standard, which is widely known as a "distributed file system," was developed by Sun. The name is somewhat misleading because NFS is not a disk file system that reads and writes the disk sectors, but enables the operating system to view files on computers in the network as if they were local. See file sharing protocol, file system and WebNFS.

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