Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 2 Sep 1998 01:05:30 -0400 (EDT) | From | Elliot Lee <> | Subject | Re: Implementing Meta File information in Linux |
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On Tue, 1 Sep 1998, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> 1. If you get the design of something wrong, it's a lot easier to change or > unwire it if it lives in an API library than if it lives in the kernel. > We *will* get the metadata design wrong the first time. Let's do our > prototyping in user space, guys, to hold down the number of potentially > destructive interactions.
How about "let's do it in user space, period"? Or better yet, "make your programs include the same functionality without using 'metadata'"? :)
This war has already been by the GNOME mailing lists about ten million times, and nobody ever comes up with a perfect solution. I suggest that it is because there isn't one!
"Do it as a directory with files in it (like NeXT)" - Not transparent - Not backwards compatible
"Do it in the kernel as part of the FS" - Not portable - Unneeded bloat - the high ratio of possible userland to kernel solutions suggests that the best way to do it is probably in userland.
"Do it as an LD_PRELOAD" - Will slow down all programs whether they need it or not - Hackish and unreliable (i.e. programs can segv when LD_PRELOADing just a replacement time() function)
"Maintain a database of filename -> metadata mappings" - Not transparent - Storage locations. Storing one fork of a file in one place and another fork in another place would cause problems for inter-user database sharing and sane quota maintainance
"Use the netatalk approach" (dot directories with mirror files in them) + At least this has been widely tested & used - Not transparent
Did I forgot to bash any other approaches? ;-)
No such thing as free software design lunch, -- Elliot Progress (n.): The process through which Usenet has evolved from smart people in front of dumb terminals to dumb people in front of smart terminals. -- obs@burnout.demon.co.uk
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