On Tue, Oct 24, 2000 at 11:09:26AM +0200, Andreas Gruenbacher wrote:
> > > This is a proposal to add extended attributes to the Linux kernel.
> > > Extended attributes are name/value pairs associated with inodes.
> >
> > Did you read the thread on l-k regarding a common interface for
> > accessing extended attributes (much like NTFS streams)?
>
> I am aware of a recent thread about streams akin to a flamewar. If I
> recall correctly there were not many arguments applicable to extended
> attributes.
>
> I hope I made clear that streams and extended attributes are separate
> things. Streams are accessed using regular file semantics. Extended
> attributes are accessed atomically using stateless operations (no
> open--close).
There is a need for beeing able to do atomic (transactional) operations
on filesystems beyond extended attributes. Maybe the same interface can
be used for both.
> > What about inheritence for extended attributes? With this code, there
> > are two options:
> > * Just setting the attribute for the directory and all subdirectories
> > (It get's compressed anyway...)
> > (not really inheritence though)
> > * Implement inheritence in the layers using the attributes, e.g. ACL
> >
> > I don't know how much need there is for inheritence here, but if a lot
> > of attributes will need it I think it should be supported in the
> > interface instead. (though hardlinks really make this hard)
>
> In UNIX like filesystems, permissions are associated with inodes.
> Inheritance based schemes tend to associate permissions with directory
> entries. There's an inherent conflict between the two. (Personally I
> prefer the inode based scheme.)
>
> For Posix like Access Control Lists at least I don't see how inheritance
> could possibly work out. All ideas I have seen so far seem to collapse at
> some point.
Of course, the users of the extended attributes may choose to implement
inheritance any way they want. My question was regarding inheritence for
the attributes themselves. Maybe the users should be able to say that
this attribute should be shared between multiple files, or this
attribute should be inherited by all new files in the directory?
Remember, the extended attributes can be used by lots of things beside
ACLs.
--
Ragnar Kj�rstad
Big Storage
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-fsdevel" in
the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
