Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!kithrup!sef
From: sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: file attributes
Message-ID: <1991Jun25.181232.2862@kithrup.COM>
Date: 25 Jun 91 18:12:32 GMT
References: <1792@sranha.sra.co.jp>
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Lines: 35

In article <1792@sranha.sra.co.jp> erik@srava.sra.co.jp (Erik M. van der Poel) writes:
>It seems to me, however, that this is not the case with my metadata
>proposal. It is extremely simple, and any IT professional should be
>able to see that it is implementable. 

It's *wrong*.  Understand?

1.  It has no need to go into the kernel.
2.  A *much* better way to do what you are trying to do, that *has* been
done before, that is much more general, elegant, etc., is to use watchdogs.
If you don't know about them, then you have not researched the area of
filesystem enhancements well enough, and should realize that it is time to
do so.

>One possible syntax is a number
>of lines (Name: value) followed by an empty line. 

What do people in, oh, Japan, Spain, Germany, China, Russia, Brazil, etc.,
do?  Do you have a different one for each file?  Where do you *put* this
information?

>This is both simple
>and extensible. Don't forget that the *system* software does not need
>to recognize the names and values. Only user software does. 

Wait... let me get this straight:  system software never needs to see it,
only user software.  So we have to add a system call.

Real bright.

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "What *does* that 33 do?  I have no idea."
sef@kithrup.COM  |           -- Chris Torek
-----------------+              (torek@ee.lbl.gov)
Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.