Which protocol is used to mount file systems on a remote host over a network, enabling interaction as if mounted locally?

• A. Samba
• B. NFS
• C. NIS
• D. CIFS

Answer: (B)

NFS (Network File System) is the mechanism that lets you mount a directory from a remote host so it appears and behaves like part of your local filesystem. The remote server exports a directory, and a client attaches that export to a local mount point. Once mounted, you can perform standard file operations (read, write, list) as if the files were stored on your own machine. On Unix-like systems, you typically mount with a command that specifies the remote path and the local mount point, such as mount -t nfs server:/export /mnt, after which interactions with those files go through the network transparently.

Samba/CIFS is Windows-style file sharing, used to access Windows shares from Unix-like systems or vice versa. NIS, by contrast, is a centralized directory service for user accounts and host information, not for mounting file systems.