Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Thu, 8 Nov 2001 17:29:05 +0100 (CET) | From | Andreas Gruenbacher <> | Subject | RE: [RFC][PATCH] extended attributes |
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On Thu, 8 Nov 2001, Luka Renko wrote:
> In http://acl.bestbits.at/man/extattr.5.html there is a statement: > > Device special files cannot be associated with extended user attributes > > What is the reason for this limitation? Why should there be a difference > between regular files/directories and special files (device files)?
This limitation has been introduced since allowing extended user attributes for special files leads to an awkward semantic mess: Extended user attributes are in a sense treaded like file contents (concerning permissions, for example). Now the "contents" of a special file are a device, really. The device isn't even located on the filesystem the special file is on. And the device doesn't have extended attributes.
It is possible to have devices on read-only file systems, which are readable and writeable. It would not be possible to have extended attributes in that case.
> I am also thinking in terms of HSM application (or DMAPI if you want). Where > do you want HSM attributes to be placed? I thought it should be in trusted, > because we might need access to them from user space. Other option is system > (that would require accessing them from kernel code) or user (might be > problematic, since regular user with write permission might remove them...
I am not sure about this. Just note that XFS and current ext2/ext3 don't yet have the owner and trusted namespaces.
--Andreas.
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