DACS.VFS(5)							DACS Formats Manual						       DACS.VFS(5)

NAME

       dacs.vfs - the DACS virtual filestore

DESCRIPTION

       These files are part of the DACS suite.

       The virtual filestore provides flexible ways for DACS and software built on top of DACS to obtain information regardless of how or where
       the information is stored. The DACS core accesses (almost) all configuration information through the virtual filestore layer, allowing
       information to be more easily shared and maintained, secured, or organized for better performance.

       Sometimes it is easiest to store information in a regular file initially, where it can be modified using an ordinary text editor, but after
       some growth a database might improve performance. In some situations, accessing the information remotely, via HTTP, makes administration
       more convenient or is more secure. A goal of the virtual filestore is to make it simple to make configuration choices appropriate to a
       particular DACS environment, and to change them as required. Consult dacsvfs(1)[1] for additional information.

       For example, the account file used by dacspasswd(1)[2] and other components is accessed from within DACS through the name passwds (a string
       called an item type). The DACS configuration in effect determines how this is mapped to an object that contains the account information,
       how an individual account name is looked up, and where the object is located.

       Each virtual filestore instance maps to either an uninterpreted sequence of bytes (e.g., a Unix file or the output of a program) or an
       object that contains zero or more items, each of which is associated with a key (i.e., the name of an item relative in its virtual
       filestore context) and has an uninterpreted sequence of bytes as its value (e.g., a database file, a Unix file containing lines having a
       particular keyword/value structure, or a directory containing regular files).

       The VFS[3] directive is used to specify where and how information is stored. Some commands and functions take a VFS specification as an
       argument to provide a default or override a default.

       For maximum portability, a key should be composed of characters from the Portable Filename Character Set[4]: any alphanumeric character,
       period, hyphen, or underscore. The true limitation on the character set depends on the underlying storage scheme and URI syntax
       constraints. There is no a priori limit on naming context or key length.

SEE ALSO

       dacsvfs(1)[1], dacs.conf(5)[5], dacs.install(7)[6], dacs_vfs(8)[7]

BUGS

AUTHOR

       Distributed Systems Software (www.dss.ca[8])

COPYING

       Copyright2003-2012 Distributed Systems Software. See the LICENSE[9] file that accompanies the distribution for licensing information.

NOTES

	1. dacsvfs(1)
	   http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacsvfs.1.html

	2. dacspasswd(1)
	   http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacspasswd.1.html

	3. VFS
	   http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#VFS

	4. Portable Filename Character Set
	   http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap03.html#tag_03_276

	5. dacs.conf(5)
	   http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html

	6. dacs.install(7)
	   http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.install.7.html

	7. dacs_vfs(8)
	   http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs_vfs.8.html

	8. www.dss.ca
	   http://www.dss.ca

	9. LICENSE
	   http://dacs.dss.ca/man/../misc/LICENSE

DACS 1.4.27b							    10/22/2012							       DACS.VFS(5)