Re: Recursive directory accounting for size, ctime, etc.

[Sage Weil]

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008, J. Bruce Fields wrote:
> I just wonder how one would explain to users (or application writers)
> why changes to a file are reflected in the parent's rctime in one case,
> and not in another, especially if the primary link is otherwise
> indistinguishable from the others.  The symptoms could be a bit
> mysterious from their point of view.

Yes.  I'm not sure it can really be avoided, though.  I'm trying to lift 
the usual restriction of having to predefine what the 
volume/subvolume/qtree boundary is and then disallowing links/renames 
between then.  When all of a file's links are contained within the 
directory you're looking at (i.e. something that might be a subvolume 
under that paradigm), things look sensible.  If links span two directories 
and you're looking at recursive stats for a dir containing only one of 
them, then you're necessarily going to have some weirdness (you don't want 
to double-count).

Making the primary/remote-ness visible to users somehow (via, say, a 
virtual xattr) might help a bit.  The bottom line, though, is that links 
from multiple points in the namespace and a hierarchical view of file 
_content_ aren't particularly compatible concepts...

sage
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