nfs in FC5

[Gordon Messmer]

Frank-Michael Fischer wrote:
> Here is the text from "System -> Help":
...
>     To access UNIX shares, double-click on the Unix Network (NFS)
>     object. A list of the UNIX shares available to you is displayed in
>     the file manager window.

File a bug against its docs.  gnome-vfs2 doesn't contain support for NFS.

> I am just asking how will I get the Unix Network (NFS) object showing in
> the file manager? Because only the Windows Network (SMB) object shows.

You can't, GNOME apparently no longer supports it.

> Actually there are also only two ways to access an SMB share: through
> "mount -t cifs" or (poor man's version) "smbclient". So how comes I can
> see the SMB shares in file manager without having an fstab entry or
> issuing a "mount"?

Because it's easy for a user-space process to interface with an SMB 
server.  gnome-vfs2 uses the same code that smbclient does.

NFS is a different beast entirely.  Unless your server is configured 
specially (using the "insecure" option), it won't accept requests to 
mount or browse from non-root users on client systems.  That alone makes 
NFS support in Nautilus pretty much useless.

> "showmount -e little" would give you e.g. the following list on my test
> system:
> 
>     Export list for little:
>     /home *
>     /srv/install *
> 
> Therefore one could have an automatic discovery of available shares (and
> other Linuxes have that).

Not really.  How do you automatically discover hosts that offer NFS service?