VFS-style Union Mount under GNU/Hurd

Abstract

GNU/Hurd is a microkernel operating system with a unique architecture based on translators. A translator is a (user-space) server which is attached to a file system node, thus complying with the “everything is a file” concept. Translators can both modify the contents of the node they were set on and publish virtual file systems. Under normal circumstances, once a translator is mounted on a node, the contents of this node are completely obscured. The purpose of unionmount project is to allow mounting translators so that the virtual files systems will be merged with the contents of the underlying node. Also, this project supposes implementation of a set of rules which will allow for a more complex (merging) functionality.