Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Thu, 16 Sep 2004 10:23:09 +0200 | | From | Helge Hafting <> | | Subject | Re: silent semantic changes with reiser4 |
Timothy Miller wrote:
> I'm probably not the first to suggest this idea, and it's probably not > a very good idea, but here's my idea anyhow: > > You have a file "/usr/bin/emacs" > with a metadata property in the overlaid namespace > "/usr/bin/emacs/[[..]metas/]icon" > > According to some, this could cause some confusion. Howabout instead: > > You have a file "/usr/bin/emacs" > with a metadata property in a slightly separated namespace > "/metas/usr/bin/emacs/icon" > And the problem with such a "solution" is mv /usr/bin/emacs /usr/bin/old-emacs Do this with an ordinary fs, and the /metas/usr/bin/emacs/icon won't move with it. Now metas might might not be an ordinary fs, so perhaps the move happens automatically there, but if so it will be unexpected.
> This has the advantage of still having the metadata in the filesystem > namespace but without the confusion of having files-as-directories, > ambiguity of filename, backup issues, etc. This is the reverse of > having the namespaces overlaid with a "/nometas" view which is separate. > > Furthermore, you can split things further like this: > > You have a file "/usr/bin/emacs" > with an automatically-generated metadata property that you don't want > to back up in "/autometas/usr/bin/emacs/modification_date" > and a manually generated metadata property that you MAY want to backup > in "/staticmetas/usr/bin/emacs/icon". > > This is inelegant, I know. But if we do this, we can add the extra > features of reiser4 without confusing existing apps or having to > modify them to support the new functionality. > > Furthermore, you can easily hide the extra features by not mounting > the meta top-level directories (assuming they're mounted like separate > filesystems, rather than just magically appearing there, which is okay > too).
Having to go up to root and then down a similar but different path to reach a file's metadata seems very counterintuitive to me. And you have to update all tools to do this automatically, or it'll be hopeless to actually use.
Helge Hafting
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