The Web File System (WFS) is a file system interface to the World Wide Web This interface helps leverage existing investment in file system based tools by allowing them to access the Web as if it were a file system. Because it is implemented as an NFS server, WFS works without modification to standard file system clients or Web servers. We do not propose the file system interface as an alternative to the existing graphical interfaces; these will remain the preferred method of access for humans. Instead, WFS speaks to a disenfranchised community - our old friends like find, grep, csh and perl that until now were largely barred from the Web. We also believe that WFS will make it easier to develop new Web savvy applications by shielding programmers from the details of Web protocols.
Web File System: File-Like Access to the Web.
In the proceedings of the 5th Annual MIT Student Workshop on Scalable
Computing. Wellesley, MA. August 1995.