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From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.unix
Subject: Re: unix file system
Message-ID: <210@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 26-Jul-85 17:03:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.210
Posted: Fri Jul 26 17:03:36 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jul-85 08:06:28 EDT
References: <3287@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 14
Xref: linus net.unix-wizards:11218 net.unix:4554

One does not fix Fortran- or DEC- created problems with files
by trying to force UNIX to adopt the same mistakes.

If you have to maintain "attribute" information in a file,
how about storing it as the first yay many bytes of the file
contents, to avoid breaking commands like "cp" which are done
right on UNIX and wrong on DEC systems.  You're going to need
special-purpose utilities to decode this "attribute"
information anyhow, so please limit the damage to just those
utilities.

Suggested reading:  The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 57,
No. 6, Part 2 (July/August 1978), pp. 1947-1969, "UNIX Time-
Sharing System:  A Retrospective" by D. M. Ritchie.