The Prospero File System User's Manual

Introduction The Prospero file system is based on the Virtual System Model[1, 2, 3, 4]. It differs from traditional distributed file systems in several ways. In traditional file systems, the mapping of names to files is the same for all users. Prospero supports user centered naming: users construct their own view of the files that are accessible. The mapping from names to files is controlled by this view. Objects may be organized in multiple ways and the same object may may appear in different virtual systems, or even with multiple names in the same virtual system. Prospero provides several mechanisms to support customization. Among them are the union link and the filter. Directories can contain references to files and other directories that are stored on remote nodes. This allows distribution at a much finer level of granularity than is possible in traditional distributed file systems. 2 The Directory Mechanism In Prospero, the global file system consists o