I thought people would like this:

I rebuilt using the nfs v3 stuff.  I rebooted.

I forgot about the Sun 3/80 building X11R6 on an NFS exported drive.

Nothing went wrong.

The sun did not time out before the FS was back.  Nothing has broken.  It
is continuing to merrily build, blissfully unaware that the earth has shaken
beneath its feet.

Congratulations to all involved in the NFS integration; it was smooth enough
to handle a stupid user error.

-s