!Help for !SoftMDFS - MDFS File Server Version 0.01
===================================================

       J.G.Harston - jgh@arcade.demon.co.uk
     70 Camm Street, Walkley, Sheffield S6 3TR
                Date: 06-May-2000

!SoftMDFS provides a network fileserver with the
functionality of the SJ Research MDFS server.

Double-clicking on !SoftMDFS starts the server with
default settings. These can be altered by editing
creating a Choices:SoftMDFS.Choices file.

The core of the program is Alan William's awServer,
which is fully and greatfully acknowledged.





----- unedited part ------


awilliams@acorn.co.uk



The default password file contains BOOT and SYST.

This program is a fileserver for RISC OS machines. 

It is still in a very experimental state and there are numerous known
deficiencies in the  client services it performs.  However it is still a
very useful program. 

It is an 'Acorn' compatible server as far as is possible.  It mimics the
Acorn style of space  accounting, group and user names. It is also
password file syntax compatible with Acorn  servers.


It is limited by the nature of the RISC OS Filing systems that it
serves.  Most of these  will be instantiations  (Acorn's word not mine)
of Filecore and as such will have an upper limit of directory entries
that is lower than a normal Fileserver. 

At its current level of development it should be regarded as a useful
utility rather than a  replacement for an Acorn server.  


There are currently known only to be four client requests not supported
by the server.   They are *LOAD & *SAVE as command line operations, 
the CatHeader and UID function  call.  The only machines likely
to be affected by these three (I hope) are Atoms, Systems or ARC only 
nets using the broadcast loader (of which there are currently none).
(If you don't think this is true read the date at the top of the page)


Those of you who attended the Australian 1988 Econet conference may have
seen my  Front end & Management system for Filestore.  Unfortunately for
that system the recent  releases of Filestore code (1.39 at the time of
writing)  are a down grade on the original Filestore code (1.23).  No
work at all has been done on the Frontend since then.  This  server was
an attempt to provide an upgrade path to the users of my Frontend. 
Granted it  involved them throwing away their Filestores, no doubt some
bits could be recycled for  useful purposes, like door stops perhaps.


You will need to do a little work setting up the server before you can
use it.  The servers  operational parameters are setup as system
variables in the !Run file before the server  starts.  You should edit
that file to suit your self.  Briefly the items that can be set are as 
follows;


Set Server$DevX:ClientAreaName  Adfs::4.$
Set Server$DevX_PWF  Adfs::4.$.Passwords

This pair of lines can be repeated up to 10 times.  Starting with X=0 to
X=9.  It defines  the locations of the areas you wish to server, and
also the name that area will have when  viewed from the net.  You should
substitute appropriate names in place of  ClienAreaName in the above
example.

You can see from this that you can serve any area of the RISC OS filing
system world.   The second line above is where to find the Password file
for the area.  It should be noted  that it is not necessary for the
password file to reside in the shared area, and can thus be  hidden from
the clients.

The following line sets the maximum number of users that can log on to
the server.

Set Server$Users  10

It is also possible to get the server to write a trace file of all the
requests made by the  clients.  The following line would set up a trace.

Set Server$Trace <Obey$Dir>.TraceFile

The following is an example of the trace file output (Some have been 
shortened to fit on this page);

Server started at Sat,23 June 1990.11:13:19
Sat,23 June 1990.11:13:24 0.1 Stranger *I am FRED  
0.1 Client Function 21 Read user environment
0.1 Client Function 14 Read disc names. 
0.1 Client Function 6 Find :Archimedes.$.ArthurLib type 101. 
0.1 Client Function 7 Shut 4. 
0.1 Client Function 18 Read name of dir on 
0.1 Client Function 3 EXAMINE  for title and ACCESS. 
0.1 Client Function 3 EXAMINE  for title and ACCESS. 
0.1 Client Function 3 EXAMINE  for title and ACCESS. 
0.1 Client Function 3 EXAMINE  
0.1 Client *Lib WORK 

                                                           
It should be noted that the trace file gets VERY BIG very fast and should
only be used in exceptional circumstances.  It may be helpful in reporting
bugs.


Version History

0.01 05-May-2000  Initial rewrite of awServer to provide basic MDFS
functionality.



!awServer is provided as is with no warranties of any kind including
the warranties of design, merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose, or arising from a course of dealing, usage or trade practice.

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of Acorn.
                                                             

*********************************************************************
                                 ADVERT
*********************************************************************

If you are interested in an EXCELLENT set of Fileserver management
utilities for L3/Filestore/!awServer then I can recommend the following

The NetManager suit
Written by 
Chris Laycock
Elizabeth College
Cnr. Warwick & Murray St.
Hobart  7000
Tasmania
Australia
            
