History
Early implementations of AFP server software were available in Mac OS starting with System 6, in AppleShare and AppleShare IP, and in early "1.x" releases of Mac OS X Server. In client operating systems, AFP was called "Personal File Sharing", and supported up to ten simultaneous connections. These AFP implementations relied on version 1.x or 2.x of the protocol. AppleShare IP 5.x, 6.x, and the "1.x" releases of Mac OS X Server introduced AFP version 2.2. This was the first version to offer transport connections using TCP/IP as well as AppleTalk. It also increased the maximum share point size from four gibibytes to two tebibytes, although the maximum file size that could be stored remained at two gibibytes due to limitations in the original Mac OS.
Changes made in AFP since version 3.0 represent major advances in the protocol, introducing features designed specifically for Mac OS X clients.
However, like the AppleShare client in original Mac OS, the AFP client in Mac OS X continues to support type and creator codes, along with filename extensions.
AFP 3.0 was introduced in Mac OS X Server 10.0.3, and was used through Mac OS X Server 10.1.5. It was the first version to use the UNIX-style POSIX permissions model and Unicode UTF-8 file name encodings. Version 3.0 supported a maximum share point and file size of two tebibytes, the maximum file size and volume size for Mac OS X until version 10.2. (Note that the maximum file size changed from version 2.2, described above.) Before AFP 3.0, 31 bytes was the maximum length of a filename sent over AFP.
AFP 3.1 was introduced in Mac OS X Server version 10.2. Notable changes included support for Kerberos authentication, automatic client reconnect, NFS resharing, and secure AFP connections via Secure Shell (SSH). The maximum share point and file size increased to 8 tebibytes with Mac OS X Server 10.2, and then to 16 tebibytes with Mac OS X Server 10.3.
AFP 3.2 adds support for Access Control Lists and extended attributes in Mac OS X Server 10.4. Maximum share point size is at least 16 tebibytes, although Apple has not published a limits document for Mac OS X Server 10.4.
AFP 3.2+ was introduced in Mac OS X Leopard and adds case sensitivity support and improves support for Time Machine (synchronization, lock stealing, and sleep notifications).
AFP 3.3 mandates support for Replay Cache functionality (required for Time Machine).
See Apple's Developer documentation on AFP Version Differences.
Read more about this topic: Apple Filing Protocol
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What we call National-Socialism is the poisonous perversion of ideas which have a long history in German intellectual life.”
—Thomas Mann (18751955)
“The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.”
—Willa Cather (18761947)
“No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.”
—Ellen Glasgow (18741945)