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Date:      Mon, 6 May 2002 01:21:25 -0700
From:      Alfred Perlstein <bright@mu.org>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        Chuck McCrobie <mccrobie@cablespeed.com>, freebsd-fs@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: New File system to commit to FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <20020506082125.GC36741@elvis.mu.org>
In-Reply-To: <3CD63C3F.2F4E8F02@mindspring.com>
References:  <3CD5F4CD.2F394EFE@cablespeed.com> <20020506040438.GZ36741@elvis.mu.org> <3CD63C3F.2F4E8F02@mindspring.com>

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* Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> [020506 01:18] wrote:
> Alfred Perlstein wrote:
> > * Chuck McCrobie <mccrobie@cablespeed.com> [020505 20:13] wrote:
> > > 3.  OpenVMS and ODs-2 keep record attributes and embedded meta-data in
> > > the regular file data.  I've been writing some utility programs that
> > > understand the meta-data, like "ods2_cat" and "ods2_cp".  Also, some
> > > work has progressed on an RMS library.  Should and how are such things
> > > committed?
> > 
> > This sounds like quite a suite of utilities, my _guess_ is that
> > the FS code could/would be committed to FreeBSD, but the utilities
> > to manipulate the FS (ods2_cat, ods2_cp) would go into a port.
> 
> You could either hack into the namespace, or you could provide
> an fcntl() that gets passed down to the FS for an open descriptor,
> to turn these utilities tiny, and incorporate most of the code into
> the FS itself (you are much better off doing this, if you can, since
> it means that the facilities won't be "lost" into a port for which
> FTP services will have to be maintained in perpetuity).
> 
> Right now, since FreeBSD doesn't propagate namespace selection
> information from the POSIX namespsace escape down properly, you
> would have to hack it to operate on a per component basis (not
> as bad as you might imagine, but still an annoying thing to have
> to do), so for my money, an fcntl() would be the best approach.

Yeah, I find it really odd that one would expose the internals
of the actual meta-data to applications.

...wandering off topic...
Is that how VMS does it (in the kernel)?  Or is there some userland
library that you _must use_ to access files that does this sort of
thing for you?  Or does each userspace application have to do magic
to parse meta-data?

-- 
-Alfred Perlstein [alfred@freebsd.org]
'Instead of asking why a piece of software is using "1970s technology,"
 start asking why software is ignoring 30 years of accumulated wisdom.'
Tax deductible donations for FreeBSD: http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/

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