Blending hierarchical and attribute-based file naming

A framework that treats hierarchical naming as a special case of attribute-based naming with constant rules is discussed. The framework allows the construction of a name-spaces-blending hierarchy with characteristics of flat attribute-based systems and provides a comprehensive mechanism for combining these name spaces in flexible ways to build up large distributed structures. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by implementing a prototype file and directory server. Client workstations require minimal modifications in order to access this service through the NFS (network file server) protocol