Ubuntu® Linux® Bible

Chapter 31. Setting Up an NFS Server

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Overview of NFS

• Installing an NFS server

• Exporting directories using graphical tools

• Examining the NFS configuration file

Sharing groups of files that multiple people need access to is standard operating procedure in business today and, thanks to home networking, is getting to be SOP for home use as well. Providing centralized access to a collection of audio materials that you've extracted from your CD collection or the vacation photos from your most recent trips is just as important to the home user as providing centralized access to your procedure manuals and software source repository is to the business user or SOHO developer. Luckily, Linux systems provide several ways of sharing directories over a network, some oriented primarily toward Linux and other Unix-like systems, including Apple's Mac OS X, and others oriented more toward Microsoft Windows systems (which Linux and Mac OS X systems can also access, of course). This chapter discusses how to set up one of your Ubuntu Linux systems so that other systems can access its directories over the network using NFS, the Network File System, which is popularly used on all Linux and Unix-like systems. (For information on setting up your Ubuntu system to share directories with Microsoft Windows systems, see Chapter 32, "Setting Up a Samba Server."

Sun Microsystems' Network File System, better known simply as NFS, is the most common networked filesystem in use today, largely because it ...