[299] in SIPB-AFS-requests
Re: hodge & afs cells
qjb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (qjb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Oct 16 16:03:34 1990
> You mean the AFS software won't let you do a backup unless your
> machine is in the same cell as the cell you're backing up? Is that a
> security precaution, or just lazy programming?
>
> While we're on the subject, I have a question about the directions in
> /afs/sipb/project/exadump/NEW_HOWTO:
>
> >2) change the local cell of hodge to sipb:
> > echo "sipb.mit.edu" >/usr/vice/etc/ThisCell
>
> Why do these directions work? I suspect I'm horribly confused, but I
> was under the impression that you need to reboot before changes to
> /usr/vice/etc/ThisCell take effect, and the directions say nothing about
> rebooting hodge.
>
> I'd also like to reiterate jik's question about why we need to change
> the local cell in the first place....
Well, my guess is that the backup stuff generates commands that
omit the -cell option. All ThisCell does is change what the afs
client libraries tell you the default cell is. It doesn't
really effect anything other than the semantics of afs commands.
If the real local cell of the workstation doesn't match
ThisCell, then some afs commands will just not do what you think
they're doing, but nothing really bad will happen. THe
workstation's real cell won't change unless you reboot.
