Talk:Apple Filing Protocol

article name
I moved the article back to Apple Filing Protocol. I am aware of the page at http://www.apple.com/business/mac_pc/networking.html but I think Apple has made a mistake here since it is referred to as Apple Filing Protocol in many other places including in formal specification documents. --Ali@gwc.org.uk 10:11, 19 July 2006 (UTC)


 * All the modern locations refer to this as the AppleShare Filing Protocol, but its clear that Apple hasn't put much effort into being consistent, so I don't really care. However, that is how it ended up where it did.. -- Steven Fisher 15:27, 19 July 2006 (UTC)


 * hmm, I can't say I have any particularly strong feelings on the subject either! For interest, the Google test gives 29700 hits for "apple filing protocol" but only 151 for "appleshare filing protocol" . man AppleFileServer (on Mac OS X 10.4.x) calls it "Apple File Protocol".... --Ali@gwc.org.uk 17:20, 19 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Interesting on the man AppleFileServer. I would say that settles it. At any rate, I was just trying to explain why I moved it, not justify it. I was thinking of moving it back myself, just didn't get to it. -- Steven Fisher


 * It's definitely Apple Filing Protocol. AppleShare is the name of the AFP client used in Mac OS 9 and X.  AFAIK, the term AppleShare hasn't been used to describe the protocol since back when AFP ran over DDP (AppleTalk packets), at which time it was used to refer to the sum of the transport plus the AFP protocol on top.  Don't quote me on that, though. Dgatwood (talk) 05:22, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Unless wikipedia is going to become a central security repository, I doubt that the paragraph outlining a single security vulnerability is of any use. Suggest junking the entire section.

GiB vs GB
The article provided as a reference quotes 2 GB. This is ambiguous. Unless it can be shown that this article means 2^31 bytes, this must remain 2 GB. Changing values without reference is original research. --Steven Fisher 21:19, 9 April 2007 (UTC)


 * New source makes this perfect, thanks. --Steven Fisher 22:49, 9 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Huh, I thought I replied to you here, but apparently I didn't. You're welcome :) --SLi 23:31, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

OSI Network Layer
The article states that AFP is a Presentation Layer protocol, but isn't it really an Application Layer Protocol? Bobbyrullo 07:15, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

There's typically a kernel VFS (virtual filesystem) layer interposed above AFP, assuming you're talking about the client side, so I would say it's closer to a presentation layer protocol, but the OSI model doesn't map well onto TCP/IP anyway, so it's almost a moot point.... :-) Dgatwood (talk) 05:27, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Change in Leopard
I don't fully understand this, but in Tiger the protocol was "afp:/at/ :*" but in Leopard you must use two slashes. I can't even get the "connect to server" dialog to connect at all now! This change should be more clearly described in the article. -kslays (talk) 15:28, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I finally got it working by dragging the connection into the connect to server dialog. Here is the form it takes: afp:// ._afpovertcp._tcp.local/ Is this standard?  If so, it should be in the article.  -kslays (talk) 20:19, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is not a manual. Guy Harris (talk) 01:48, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Restructuring this article
I'm going to suggest that we rewrite this article. There's nothing wrong with the facts within (and we should preserve them), but the flow and general organization make it hard to read and expand.

I'd suggest an overview that looks something like:


 * a better history, with a timeline of versions and client releases


 * clearly separating protocol from implementation; most of what's there now is about implementation
 * list of clients and their capabilities
 * list of servers and their capabilities
 * overview of the differences in versions
 * general features (filename lengths, resource forks, internationalization)
 * security concerns
 * interaction with Time Machine
 * usage for Spotlight


 * creating a new section on the protocol itself:
 * how it relates to DSI] and [[AppleTalk (AppleTalk and AFP are often confused)
 * basics of the protocol (strings, GetFileDirParms, etc)
 * login sequences
 * how filenames are handled
 * UAM descriptions

There's a fair amount written on AFP out there already, but there's no one reference that puts all the information together in a guided coherent way. This could be it.

Alexthepuffin (talk) 20:52, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Changes in Snow Leopard
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard has dropped compatibility with AFP older than v3.0. Pre-OS X Macs are limited to v2, so file-sharing with them is no longer possible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.163.57.193 (talk) 19:50, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

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Current status of AFP vs SMB2, or???
It would be super helpful if someone could update (with references) the current status of AFP. Articles from around 2013 talked about Apple starting to drop AFP in favor of SMB2 in Mavericks. For example: "apple-shifts-from-afp-file-sharing-to-smb2-in-os-x-109-mavericks" Did this happen? Has the transition gone further? Was that abandoned in favor of AFPS? Thanks. Gwideman (talk) 07:12, 22 December 2016 (UTC)


 * APFS is a local file system, AFP is a protocol for remote file access, so APFS can't be a replacement for AFS and AFS can't be abandoned in favor of APFS, any more than, for example, NFS could be abandoned in favor of ZFS or SMB abandoned in favor of HAMMER. It's possible for a server for a particular protocol not to allow exporting a particular local file system over the network, such as the AFP server not allowing APFS file systems to be exported over the network, but that's a different matter.


 * There's still a mount_afp command, complete with man page, and an afpfs kext in Sierra, as well as /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer, so the AFP client and server are still present. You might have to turn AFP sharing on manually if you don't have the Server software installed on Sierra, but the server at least ships with Sierra. Guy Harris (talk) 10:08, 22 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Very helpful regarding APFS. That explains the article's comment "AFP is deprecated within APFS". But what of the current status of SMB(2)? And should that be mentioned in this article on AFP as AFP's replacement? Gwideman (talk) 20:21, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

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