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I tried to install nfs using sudo apt-get install nfs-server (for the purpose of streaming audio files to a Mac running OS 10.6) and discovered that I have two packages to choose between.

Package nfs-server is a virtual package provided by:
  nfs-kernel-server 1:1.2.0-4ubuntu4.1
  unfs3 0.9.22+dfsg-2
You should explicitly select one to install.

Is there any particular reason to choose unfs3 over nfs-kernel server? Is it faster or slower? More or less stable? Does it matter at all?

Apart from the fact that I will be streaming some fairly large files (flac), I will be doing nothing out of the ordinary. It's on a closed network so there are no security concerns.

2 Answers 2

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http://unfs3.sourceforge.net/

UNFS3 is a user-space implementation of the NFSv3 server specification. It provides a daemon for the MOUNT and NFS protocols, which are used by NFS clients for accessing files on the server

UNFS3 being user space based, and not widely deployed, I wouldn't really trust it. nfs-kernel-server is linux's standard nfs server

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  • Not widely deployed and, I take it, therefore not as thoroughly tested. nfs-kernel-server it is then.
    – senderle
    Jul 16, 2011 at 17:06
  • I disagree. UNFS3 is very stable. Other NFS implementations go for more performance but often come with insane bugs especially when used with various filesystems. Just google nfs ext4 (or zfs, xfs, osx) if you want to hear some crazy stories. Because UNFS3 operates at the user-level, the filesystem is abstracted and no bad interactions ever occur. This comes at the cost of performance, but many times I've given up trying to get NFS right and used UNFS3 instead. Sep 2, 2017 at 14:35
  • @MichaelFox, that's interesting, and seems plausible. This is such an old question, and such an old answer. The conventional wisdom may well have changed in the last 6+ years. I'd encourage you to write this up as an answer, perhaps with some examples of the crazy stories you're talking about.
    – senderle
    Sep 3, 2017 at 14:39
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nfs-kernel-server is my choice and the recommended default server. It supports both NFSv3 and v4 and always works well for me. I believe unfs3 only supports v3.

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