Abbreviation of
Network File System, a
client/server application designed by
Sun Microsystems that allows all
network users to access shared files stored on computers of different types. NFS provides access to shared files through an interface called the
Virtual File System (VFS) that runs on top of
TCP/IP. Users can manipulate shared files as if they were stored
locally on the user's own
hard disk.
With NFS, computers connected to a network operate as clients while accessing remote files, and as servers while providing remote users access to local shared files. The NFS standards are publicly available and widely used.
