From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Sep 4 6:19:42 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx.wgate.com (mail.wgate.com [38.219.83.4]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BD3BA37B401 for ; Tue, 4 Sep 2001 06:19:35 -0700 (PDT) To: Paul Chvostek Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Received: From MAIL.WGATE.COM (10.1.1.4[10.1.1.4 port:4466]) by mx.wgate.comMail essentials (server 2.429) with SMTP id: <599@mx.wgate.com>transfer for ; Tue, 4 Sep 2001 9:15:40 AM -0400 ;transfer smtpmailfrom X-MESINK_Inbound: 0 X-MESINK_MailForType: SMTP X-MESINK_SenderType: SMTP X-MESINK_Sender: msinz@wgate.com X-MESINK_MailFor: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from sinz.eng.tvol.net ([10.32.2.99]) by mail.wgate.com with SMTP (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service Version 5.5.2653.13)id SAMDX8WY; Tue, 4 Sep 2001 09:18:10 -0400 Received: from wgate.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])by sinz.eng.tvol.net (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id f84DJ7L41224;Tue, 4 Sep 2001 09:19:07 -0400 (EDT)(envelope-from msinz@wgate.com) Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 09:19:07 -0400 From: Michael Sinz Organization: WorldGate Communications Inc. X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 4.3-STABLE i386) X-Accept-Language: en Subject: Re: Should URL's be pervasive. References: <20010830111018.A97057@ussenterprise.ufp.org> <20010830111708.A20961@osaka.louisville.edu> <20010830232109.A1077@dylan.home> <00000e180511ee07d1@[192.168.1.4]> <000046d0064aa607d1@[192.168.1.4]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit x-receiver: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG x-sender: msinz@wgate.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <0000046c02083c07d1@[192.168.1.4]> Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Paul Chvostek wrote: > > On Fri, Aug 31, 2001 at 02:15:09PM -0400, Michael Sinz wrote: > > > > I too have been hoping for (and building internal tools) that work > > this way. I really wish you could just do: > > > > open("nfs://server.name.dom/directory/file.txt") > > NAME > amd - automatically mount file systems > ... > DESCRIPTION > Amd is a daemon that automatically mounts filesystems whenever a file or > directory within that filesystem is accessed. Filesystems are automati- > cally unmounted when they appear to be quiescent. Ahh, but that assumes that your AMD configuration has all systems and mount points enumerated in it. Let me see - I think that 30gig drive may be big enough for that file :-) > > and have it work. That would be nice. (Replace the above with > > ftp: or http: or whatever other protocol would provide read and/or write > > access.) > > What you're looking for is a substitute open() function. Perhaps > someone should just write a URI base library. Put it in the public > domain, of course, so that all UR base is belong to us.... Ahh, but that does not address all software. Sure, edit all source and make the call to open() now be a call to uri_open()... Why bother making the OS deal with the issues involved? The reason the OS should (and could) is that it is the base from which all such services grow. Now, in a microkernel design (such as the previously mentioned HURD) there are ways to extend the filesystem to include new types (FTPFS is a great example of such a filter/expansion) but in FreeBSD (very much not microkernel) this then becomes an OS issue or a user-program issue. If it is in user space you end up with "some have it" and "some don't" and "some have some subset" which makes it really nasty. Can you imagine if there was an ide_open() to open files on IDE drives and a scsi_open() to open files on SCSI drives? Or a UFS_open() vs an ext2_open() vs an FFS_open()? Why would you then want a uri_open() vs regular open()? > Watch those puns - I could end up returning them unopened :-) -- Michael Sinz ---- Worldgate Communications ---- msinz@wgate.com A master's secrets are only as good as the master's ability to explain them to others. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message