Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Mon, 2 Feb 1998 10:25:35 +0100 | | From | Martin von Loewis <> | | Subject | Re: umsdos/uvfat |
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> Also, off topic, but wouldn't it be just as nice or nicer to implement a > generic UNIX-features layer that could be "overlaid" on top of any FS to > give long filename, permissions, etc support in a neat and generic > fashion? Not that it's likely to happen now.
This would be the 'Heidemann Framework', presented in John Heidemann's PhD thesis. It is implemented in 4.4BSD, and there are even some applications of it: - null fs(?): delegates all access to another file system: mount -t null / /mnt - null fs(?): return EINVAL for all operation. Used to unmount a file system which has open files. All inodes are replace with null inodes under each file. - union fs: mount one fs on top of the other - uid map filesystem: translates user ids Used for NFS servers which have different uids than their clients.
There is some discussion of how one could split the flat file system (inodes) and the hierarchical file system (directories), thus allowing to put one hierarchy on top of another flat system. I don't think there is a proof-of-concept implementation of that idea.
Anyway, I'm not sure whether such an architecture is worth the effort. The only advantage of implementing the Heidemann framework for Linux is that porting BSD fs drivers to Linux might be simpler.
Regards, Martin
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