Re: Versioning file system

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Wed Jun 20 2007 - 13:15:40 EST


Bryan Henderson wrote:
>> The directory is quite visible with a standard 'ls -a'. Instead,
>> they simply mark it as a separate volume/filesystem: i.e. the fsid
>> differs when you call stat(). The whole thing ends up acting rather like
>> our bind mounts.
>
> Hmm. So it breaks user space quite a bit. By break, I mean uses that
> work with more conventional filesystems stop working if you switch to
> NetAp. Most programs that operate on directory trees willingly cross
> filesystems, right? Even ones that give you an option, such as GNU cp,
> don't by default.
>
> But if the implementation is, as described, wildly successful, that means
> users are willing to tolerate this level of breakage, so it could be used
> for versioning too.
>
> But I think I'd rather see a truly hidden directory for this (visible only
> when looked up explicitly).
>

When I administered a bunch of netapps I remember turning the visible
.snapshots off.

-hpa
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