NetBSD Part 2
RAID Recovery - NetBSD
Support for Multiple File Systems
NetBSD can handle and manipulate different file systems to enable data exchange and binary compatibility. Some of them are ffs (Berkeley fast file system), lfs (log-structured file system), tmpfs (a type of memory file system), iso9660 (standard CD file system), msdosfs (Windows, MS-DOS, and Atari TOS) ntfs (Windows NT native file system), ext2fs (Linux extended file system), ados (AmigaDOS file system), and filecorefs (Acorn RISC OS file system).
Apart from these, NetBSD also has a number of virtual file system types, including kernfs (access kernel information), nullfs (for loopback mounts), portal (portal daemon file system), procfs (access process information), umapfs (automatically remap uids and gids) and unionfs (attaches).
The new NetBSD also provides the puffs framework to create file systems as user space servers, giving a number of possibilities for developing new file systems in user space.
Kernal Authorization Framework (Kauth)
This is a new security feature incorporated starting from NetBSD 4.0 release. Kauth is a subsystem capable of managing all authorization requests within a kernel. It allows external modules to plug-in the authorization process. This feature allows implementation of new security models, either as part of the base system or as Linux Kernal Module (LKM).
In-Kernel Packet Filtering Engine and Network Address Translation
NetBSD uses an in-kernel packet filtering to filter traffic based on different criteria such as interface, protocol, operating system, source and destination. Another in-kernel feature, the network address translation (NAT) permits a local network of machines to use one set of addresses internally and a different set externally- a feature that would enhance the security of the network.
Comprehensive Network Features
NetBSD supports a variety of network types including ARCnet, ATM, Ethernet, FDDI, HIPPI, PPP, SLIP, and Token Ring. NetBSD provides total in-kernel network file system (NFS) client and server support, for both NFS2 and NFS3 protocols. It also supports other protocols, including Appletalk, ISO, TCP/IP (IPv4) and TCP/IP (IPv6).
Compatibility
NetBSD is nearly compliant with IEEE 1003.1-1990 standard (POSIX.1) and mostly compliant with IEEE 1003.2-1992 (POSIX.2). It also provides system call-level binary compatibility with several UNIX-like operating systems including Linux, Apple’s Darwin, Solaris, HP-UX, Sun OS as well as other BSD variants like FreeBSD.
