On Sat, 12 Aug 2000, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> In article <Pine.LNX.4.21.0008121047190.14835-100000@duckman.distro.conectiva>,
> Rik van Riel <riel@conectiva.com.br> wrote:
> >On Sat, 12 Aug 2000, Michael Rothwell wrote:
> >> Rik van Riel wrote:
> >>
> >> > So what we want are directories, and not file streams?
> >> > Oh wait, we already have those...
> >>
> >> Not really. Directories aren't the same thing,
> >> and don't serve the same purpose. They're _similar_,
> >> but not identical.
> >
> >So what is The Big Difference(tm) that make file streams
> >so much better than directories and so much different?
>
> HFS has resource forks. They are not directories. Linux cannot
> handle them well.
>
> I'm all for handling HFS resource forks. It's called "interoperability".
Urghh, I can't believe I didn't think of this... Indeed,
we want to support HFS, HPFS and the other filesystems
with extended attributes / resource forks well.
> Suggestions welcome. What's your interface of choice for a
> filesystem like HFS that _does_ have resource forks? Whether
> you like them or not is completely immaterial - they exist.
*nod*
> And usability concerns _are_ real concerns. I'm claiming that the best
> interface for such a filesystem would be
>
> open("file", O_RDONLY) - opens the default fork
> open("file/Icon", O_RDONLY) - opens the Icon fork
> open("file/Creator"...
>
> readdir("file") - lists the resources that the file has
I can agree with this one. The behaviour of the file stays the
same as it is right now and we have an easy way of storing
extended attributes with the file.
It also solves the 'cp vs. xv' dilemma, which was my main
objection to the whole multi-fork issue. Of course this means
the extended attributes will get lost when the file is being
transfered with a tool which doesn't support extended attributes,
but the same happens today with normal attributes and tools not
supporting those... (so that's pretty much a non-issue)
> and I'm also claiming that the Linux VFS layer actually shouldn't
> have any fundamental problems with something like this.
I'll trust you and Al Viro on this one ;)
cheers,
Rik
--
"What you're running that piece of shit Gnome?!?!"
-- Miguel de Icaza, UKUUG 2000
http://www.conectiva.com/ http://www.surriel.com/
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