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- <html>
- <title>
- preface4
- </title>
- <body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#330088" ALINK="#FF0044">
- <H1>Preface to the Fourth (2002) Edition
- </H1>
- <br> <br>
- Plan 9 continues to grow and adapt.
- The fourth major release of the system
- incorporates a number of changes, but the most central
- is the conversion to a new version of the 9P file system
- protocol.
- This new version was motivated by a desire to support
- files with name elements longer than 27 bytes (the old
- <TT>NAMELEN</TT>),
- but the opportunity was taken to change a number of other things
- about the protocol,
- making it more efficient, more flexible, and easier to encapsulate.
- One simple but indispensable new feature made possible by the protocol
- change is that the system now records the user who last modified a file;
- try
- <TT>ls</TT>
- <TT>-m</TT>
- to identify the culprit.
- <br> <br>
- Many aspects of system security have been improved.
- The new security agent
- <A href="/magic/man2html/4/factotum"><I>factotum</I>(4)
- </A>maintains user passwords, while
- <A href="/magic/man2html/8/secstore"><I>secstore</I>(8)
- </A>keeps them safe and enables single sign-on to multiple domains and machines
- using a variety of secure protocols and services.
- <br> <br>
- Throughout the system, components have been rewritten and interfaces
- modified to eliminate restrictions, improve performance, and clarify design.
- The full list is too long to include here, but significant changes have occurred
- in a number of system calls
- <A href="/magic/man2html/2/wait">(<I>wait</I>(2),
- </A><A href="/magic/man2html/2/stat"><I>stat</I>(2),
- </A><A href="/magic/man2html/2/mount"><I>mount</I>(2),
- </A>and
- <A href="/magic/man2html/2/errstr"><I>errstr</I>(2)),
- </A>the thread library
- <A href="/magic/man2html/2/thread">(<I>thread</I>(2)),
- </A>formatted printing
- <A href="/magic/man2html/2/print">(<I>print</I>(2)
- </A>and
- <A href="/magic/man2html/2/fmtinstall"><I>fmtinstall</I>(2)),
- </A>security
- (many pages in section 2, including
- <A href="/magic/man2html/2/auth"><I>auth</I>(2),
- </A><A href="/magic/man2html/2/authsrv"><I>authsrv</I>(2)),
- </A>and many others.
- <br> <br>
- The changes are sweeping and are accompanied by many new programs, tools,
- services,
- and libraries.
- See the manual pages and the accompanying documents for more information.
- <br> <br>
- <br> <br>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- <DL><DT><DD>
- Bell Labs
- <br>
- Computing Science Research Center
- <br>
- Murray Hill NJ
- <br>
- April, 2002
- <br> <br>
- <A href=http://www.lucent.com/copyright.html>
- Copyright</A> © 2002 Lucent Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
- </body></html>
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