.FP lucidasans Inferno System Overview

Inferno System Overview

1 Introduction

The Inferno system is a distributed operating system based on the application of three basic principles:

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Resources as files: system resources are represented as files in a hierarchical file system.
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Namespaces: the application view of the network is a single, coherent namespace that appears as a hierarchical file system but may represent physically separated resources.
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Standard communications protocol: a standard communications protocol, called Styx, is used to access all resources, both remote and local.

1.1 Resources as files



File systems are central to the Inferno system. In general, Inferno system interfaces are written in such a way that they consist of a set of dynamic files that an application can manipulate as required. The file systems are used to represent storage devices, processes, services, networks, and network connections.

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