Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 26 Aug 2004 02:51:22 +0200 (CEST) | From | Mikulas Patocka <> | Subject | Re: silent semantic changes with reiser4 |
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> > The only way xattrs are useful is that backup/restore software doesn't > > have to know about every filesystem with it's specific attributes and > > every magic ioctl for setting them. Instead it can save/restore > > filesystem-specific attributes without understanding what do they mean. > > However there's no need why application should use them. And no > > application does. > > If no application does, then why back them up? Why implement them in the > first place? > > In other words - some apps obviously do want to use the. Sadly.
You can add more functionality to filesystem and use xattrs to control it. For example: - acls - compress file - encrypt file (copy user's password into task_struct and use it to encrypt his files) - preallocate file in 4MB contignuous chunks, becuase it needs real time multimedia access - sync/append-only/immutable etc. However there's no need why an application should care whether the file is compressed, whether it has acls, or so. And applications don't.
And I think this is the only legitimate use for xattrs. Who else uses them except samba? I don't see how reiser4's hybrids would help.
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