UNIX: The Complete Reference, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 15 Clients and Servers

Client/server networks have been implemented by UNIX users around the world in order to perform functions that older mainframe systems cannot do efficiently, such as sharing files and resources across a network, and accessing and updating data simultaneously by a number of users on networks using different protocols. File sharing is an important concept in a networked computing environment. When multiple users need access to common information, it is easier and more economical to create one file containing the information, and let everyone share it. While writing information into the common file requires a little coordination, reading information from it only requires that you are allowed access to the file by the ...