I agree. It is hard to make all unix vendors implement metadata at the
same time, someone will probably have to be first. This could be linux.
An implementation where the metadata works but nothing depends on it looks
like a good idea to me. Utilities will simply loose none-essential
functionality when accessing files over NFS.
Utilities like /bin/cp, /bin/tar, etc. will simply lose until someone
comes up with an API for accessing the metadata, so that those utilities
can deal with it. And it had better by an API which all the Unix
vendors actually salute to, or it won't be very useful.
Also consider other networking protocols besides NFS: AFS, FTP, HTTP,
etc. Implementing metadata really is a non-trivial exercise. One
really has to wonder if it's worth it. (For example, for executables,
we're probably much better off storing the icon in an ELF section....)
- Ted
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