Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 27 Aug 2004 23:08:57 -0700 | From | Paul Jackson <> | Subject | Re: silent semantic changes with reiser4 |
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Hans wrote: > We create filename/pseudos/backup, and that tells the archiver what to > do.....
Instead of exposing the old semantics under a new interface, why not expose the new semantics under a new interface.
There exist plenty of programs that know the old Unix semantics. There don't exist many working programs that use the new semantics that you're adding.
I raise again the example of how Windows adapted to long filenames. Old DOS and FAT programs, including my Unix backups of today, see a 8.3 name space. Only code that knows the new magic sees the long names.
If given the choice of breaking much old, existing stuff, or some new, mostly not yet existing stuff, does not it make more sense to break what mostly doesn't exist yet?
One possible way to do this, of no doubt many:
* Stealing a corner of the existing filename space for some magic names with the new semantics.
* A new option on open(2), hence opendir(3), that lights up these magic names.
* Doing any of the classic pathname calls with such a new magic name exposes the new semantics - such calls as: access execve mkdir mknod mount readlink rename rmdir stat truncate unlink
This means essentially constructing a map between old and new, such that changes made in either view are sane and visible from the other view.
-- I won't rest till it's the best ... Programmer, Linux Scalability Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com> 1.650.933.1373 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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