CIFS is an enhanced SMB filesystem. Microsoft will use an RFC to
document it. They keep mentioning Linux too.
>From the web page:
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CIFS Benefits
Integrity and concurrency. CIFS allows multiple clients to access and
update the same file, while preventing conflicts with sophisticated
file-sharing and locking semantics. These mechanisms also permit
aggressive caching and read-ahead/write-behind without loss of integrity.
Fault tolerance. CIFS supports fault tolerance in the face of network and
server failures. CIFS clients can automatically restore connections and
reopen files that were open prior to interruption.
Optimization for slow links. The CIFS protocol has been tuned to run
well over slow-speed dial-up lines. The effect is improved performance
for the vast numbers of users today who access the Internet using a
modem.
Security. CIFS servers support both anonymous transfers and secure,
authenticated access to named files. File and directory security
policies are easy to administer.
Performance and scalability. The performance of CIFS servers is
unequaled among network file systems. CIFS servers are highly
integrated with the operating system, tuned for maximum system
performance, and easy to administer.
Unicode file names. File names can be in any human character set, not
just ones designed mainly for English or Western European languages.
Global file names. Users do not have to mount remote file systems, but
can refer to them directly with globally significant names, instead of
ones that have only local significance.
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