A Network File System Over HTTP: Remote Access/Modification of Files and "files"

The goal of the present HTTPFS project is to enable access to remote files, directories, and other containers through an HTTP pipe. HTTPFS system permits retrieval, creation and modification of these resources as if they were regular files and directories on a local filesystem. The remote host can be any UNIX or Win9x/WinNT box that is capable of running a Perl CGI script and accessible either directly or via a web proxy or a gateway. HTTPFS runs entirely in user space. The current implementation fully supports reading as well as creating, writing, appending, and truncating of files on a remote HTTP host. HTTPFS provides an isolation level for concurrent file access stronger than the one mandated by POSIX file system semantics, closer to that of AFS. Both a programmatic interface with familiar open(), read(), write(), close(), etc. calls, and an interactive interface, via the popular Midnight Commander file browser, are provided.