NFS Version 3 Protocol Specification
RFC 1813

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Network Working Group                                       B. Callaghan
Request for Comments: 1813                                  B. Pawlowski
Category: Informational                                      P. Staubach
                                                  Sun Microsystems, Inc.
                                                               June 1995

                  NFS Version 3 Protocol Specification

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.
   This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

IESG Note

   Internet Engineering Steering Group comment: please note that
   the IETF is not involved in creating or maintaining this
   specification.  This is the significance of the specification
   not being on the standards track.

Abstract

   This paper describes the NFS version 3 protocol.  This paper is
   provided so that people can write compatible implementations.

Table of Contents

   1.    Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   1.1     Scope of the NFS version 3 protocol  . . . . . . . . . .   4
   1.2     Useful terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   1.3     Remote Procedure Call  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   1.4     External Data Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   1.5     Authentication and Permission Checking . . . . . . . . .   7
   1.6     Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   1.7     Changes from the NFS version 2 protocol  . . . . . . . .  11
   2.    RPC Information  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   2.1     Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   2.2     Constants  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   2.3     Transport address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   2.4     Sizes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   2.5     Basic Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   2.6     Defined Error Numbers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   3.    Server Procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   3.1     General comments on attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
   3.2     General comments on filenames  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   3.3.0   NULL: Do nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31

Callaghan, el al             Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 1813                 NFS Version 3 Protocol                June 1995

   3.3.1   GETATTR: Get file attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
   3.3.2   SETATTR: Set file attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
   3.3.3   LOOKUP: Lookup filename  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
   3.3.4   ACCESS: Check access permission  . . . . . . . . . . . .  40
   3.3.5   READLINK: Read from symbolic link  . . . . . . . . . . .  44
   3.3.6   READ: Read from file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  46
   3.3.7   WRITE: Write to file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  49
   3.3.8   CREATE: Create a file  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  54
   3.3.9   MKDIR: Create a directory  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  58
   3.3.10  SYMLINK: Create a symbolic link  . . . . . . . . . . . .  61
   3.3.11  MKNOD: Create a special device . . . . . . . . . . . . .  63
   3.3.12  REMOVE: Remove a file  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  67
   3.3.13  RMDIR: Remove a directory  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  69
   3.3.14  RENAME: Rename a file or directory . . . . . . . . . . .  71
   3.3.15  LINK: Create link to an object . . . . . . . . . . . . .  74
   3.3.16  READDIR: Read From directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  76
   3.3.17  READDIRPLUS: Extended read from directory  . . . . . . .  80
   3.3.18  FSSTAT: Get dynamic file system information  . . . . . .  84
   3.3.19  FSINFO: Get static file system information . . . . . . .  86
   3.3.20  PATHCONF: Retrieve POSIX information . . . . . . . . . .  90
   3.3.21  COMMIT: Commit cached data on a server to stable storage  92
   4.    Implementation issues  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  96
   4.1     Multiple version support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  96
   4.2     Server/client relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  96
   4.3     Path name interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  97
   4.4     Permission issues  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  98
   4.5     Duplicate request cache  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  99
   4.6     File name component handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
   4.7     Synchronous modifying operations . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
   4.8     Stable storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
   4.9     Lookups and name resolution  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
   4.10    Adaptive retransmission  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
   4.11    Caching policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
   4.12    Stable versus unstable writes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
   4.13    32 bit clients/servers and 64 bit clients/servers. . . . 104