At the moment the preload method only works for Solaris, but it should
not be too hard to port it to other architectures supporting
LD_PRELOAD. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to make the preload
method work under GLIBC versions >= 2.1, so don't expect this to be
done.

How To Install
--------------

To compile type

  ./configure
  make

To install, log in as root and type

  make install

This will install the 'avfs_server' program in '/usr/lib/avfs/' and
the 'avfs_preload.so' shared library in '/usr/lib/'. It will also
install some extfs handlers under '/usr/lib/avfs/extfs/'.

If you want to install to some place other then '/usr/', then specify
the '--prefix' argument to 'configure'.

If you do not have root access you can still use avfs. You should
either pass '--prefix' a directory that you own (for example your home
directory), or copy the files manually.

The avfs_server is started automatically, whenever it is first
needed. If you used 'make install' to install the components, avfs
should find the server automatically. Otherwise you will need to set
the AVFS_SERVER_PATH environment variable to the complete pathname of
the server (e.g. 'setenv AVFS_SERVER_PATH=/foo/bar/avfs_server')

Enabling AVFS
-------------

To enable AVFS support, set the environment variable LD_PRELOAD to
avfs_preload.so:

in C-shell type shells (csh, tcsh, ...)

  setenv LD_PRELOAD avfs_preload.so
    or
  setenv LD_PRELOAD /usr/lib/avfs_preload.so

in Bourne-shell type shells (sh, bash, ...)
  
  export LD_PRELOAD=avfs_preload.so
    or
  export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/avfs_preload.so


You can try it out by entering the command

  ls /#avfsstat


Having AVFS Permanently In Your System
--------------------------------------

Simple method:
- - - - - - - -

If you want to have AVFS permanently, you could set the LD_PRELOAD
variable in your '.profile' or '.tcshrc', but note, that this way the
shell will still be started without AVFS, so no 'cd'-ing until you
start a subshell. 

AVFS for the X desktop:
- - - - - - - - - - - -

A better solution is to set LD_PRELOAD for the window manager, or
desktop manager. To do this you should set the variable in .xinitrc or
.Xclients before the window manager is started. This way you'll have
AVFS functionality in everything.

For example your .Xclients could look like this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
# add any local customizations here, before startke runs
export LD_PRELOAD=avfs_preload.so
/opt/kde/bin/startkde
----------------------------------------------------------------------

AVFS in login shells for all users:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You could also have a look at the 'csh.login-beginning' and the
'profile-beginning' scripts written by Egmont Koblinger in the 'misc'
directory. You can insert these at the beginning of the /etc/csh.login
and /etc/profile scripts respectively.

These scripts start a new shell with AVFS access on login, so you can
'cd' into virtual directories in your login shell.

The scripts set AVFS access for all users except root. Users can
disable AVFS by creating a '.no_avfs' file in their home directory.


How Does It Work
----------------

The 'preload' method works by "overriding" the system calls in the
libc library, and replacing them with versions that can emulate
virtual files.