From owner-freebsd-fs Tue Mar 19 23:13:22 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Received: from flood.ping.uio.no (flood.ping.uio.no [129.240.78.31]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B450A37B404 for ; Tue, 19 Mar 2002 23:13:02 -0800 (PST) Received: by flood.ping.uio.no (Postfix, from userid 2602) id 6EB655346; Tue, 19 Mar 2002 20:35:08 +0100 (CET) X-URL: http://www.ofug.org/~des/ X-Disclaimer: The views expressed in this message do not necessarily coincide with those of any organisation or company with which I am or have been affiliated. To: Quincey Koziol Cc: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Filesystem books? References: <200203190542.g2J5gJi04830@sleipnir.ncsa.uiuc.edu> From: Dag-Erling Smorgrav Date: 19 Mar 2002 20:35:08 +0100 In-Reply-To: <200203190542.g2J5gJi04830@sleipnir.ncsa.uiuc.edu> Message-ID: Lines: 29 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/21.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Quincey Koziol writes: > > This basically looks like strongly typed filesystem - you could build > > this on top of any existing filesystem in FreeBSD using extended > > attributes and a userland library. Storing it in a single XML file is > > IMHO a regression, especially from a performance standpoint. Or did I > > miss some crucial point? > Sorta, the crucial part of the HDF5 library and file format is that the > files and library are designed to be portable between many different types > of machines, ...so you end up with something that sucks equally on all supported platforms. Sorry to sound so negative :) I'm not sure if I got my point across, BTW - what I'm saying is that you can implement HDF (or equivalent functionality, anyway) as a userland library that will run on any system that offers POSIX filesystem semantics and (non-POSIX) extended attributes, instead of reinventing the wheel just to end up with something that will crawl like a crippled snail. It might not look as cool on your CV when you're done (not enough buzzwords) but it'd be a damn sight more useful. The biggest hurdle would be adapting the library to the different EA APIs out there. That being said, HDF makes a neat interchange format, once you get rid of the silly limitations on object size & count. DES -- Dag-Erling Smorgrav - des@ofug.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message