Re: regarding support of NFS versions

["Jonathan A. Kollasch" <jakllsch%kollasch.net@localhost>]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2026 at 05:43:55PM +0200, Edgar Fuß wrote:
> For a long time, I've been looking for an NFSv4 server for NetBSD, and, failing to find one, thinking about writing one.
> 
> Does anyone know more about NFSv4 than "largely improved NFS with Kerberos 
> support"?
> Does anyone know more about Kerberos that "centralized authentication 
> service handing out signed authentication tickets for services"?
> 
> Is it possible to have a v4-only server or does some part of the protocol 
> fall back to v3?

Absolutely possible.  AWS has the EFS storage service that's NFSv4-only.

> What I have in mind is to have a privilledged login process doing the 
> authentication and forking off a worker process running under the 
> logged in user's credentials and thus have the kernel do all nifty 
> permission checking.
> 
> Is someone familiar enough with NFSv4/Kerberos to immediately point out 
> to me why that can't possibly work?

I'm not experienced with Kerberized NFSv4, but I believe something much
like what you suggest is possible.  It works similarly with AFS already.