Re: The argument for fs assistance in handling archives

[Helge Hafting]

Timothy Miller wrote:

> Hey, you know how device nodes have a bit set, indicating that they're 
> device nodes and not regular files?  Can a set of such properties be 
> defined for reiser4 metadata properties?
>
> Like a "metadata" bit so you can distinguish (if you wish) between 
> regular files and metadata objects, and in addition an "archivable 
> metadata" bit which indicates that the given piece of metadata is not 
> automatically generated and should be archived during backup (some 
> manually-generated metadata which does not need to be backed up will 
> not have this bit set -- perhaps add another flag indicating that it's 
> not automatic but unnecessary to archive). 


Interesting idea, particularly for autogenerated metadata.  Some 
metadata, like
thumbnails and icons might as well be ordinary files though.  (Like some
icon and want to use it as background bitmap?  Just copy it, because
it is a plain file.  Or want to use it as clipart - fine, the word processor
supports bitmap files. . .) 

This is a case where something is "metadata"  only because it is used as 
such,
not because it has to be.  File-as-dir is an interesting concept for 
such cases,
because it is convenient to group the "metadata" with the file, have it
move with the file and so on.  But still have this metadata accessible as
a file because it isn't all that special.

Helge Hafting


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