fs indexing/ querying on meta-data

[Tobias Pflug]

Hi everyone,

At university I am currently dealing with file indexing/query features
as they exist in the BeFS or SkyFS. In BeFS you could commit a query like:

(name == "*.c" || name == "*.h" ) && size > 20000

API functions were available to commit such queries which would use some 
attribute b-tree to find matching files.

Now to get to the point: I would like to implement such functionality on 
a very basic level (Only very simple queries) for a fs in the linux 
kernel. I thought of parsing files in userland, extracting any usable 
meta-data (such as id3 tags) and storing them as extended attributes of 
the respective
files.

My problem is that I am not sure on which approach I should take on 
this. Should I attempt to hack such functionality into an existing fs ? 
If so, which one would be suited best? Maybe the much discussed 
reiser4-plugin-interface could actually be useful for this one?

I also considered using FiST (http://www.am-utils.org/project-fist.html, 
stackable filesystem language)
but the development seems to be stalled, I am having issues with 
compilation, the author doesn't respond
and I read about people having major issues with it (segfaults etc..)

Finally there is the option of using FUSE, but I have to admit I haven't 
had a closer look at it yet.

I hope this posting isn't so clueless&chaotic that people can't be 
bothered to answer :) I'd be thankful
for any word of advice and/or pointers on this topic.

regards,
Tobi

PS: please CC to tobias.pflug@xxxxxxx , I am not subscribed to lkml. 
Thank you!
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