>If the kernel people can't fit it in, it can be hacked around. >Perhaps have each object appear twice in directory listings (once >as a file, once as a directory, perhaps with a slightly different >name). Or have an alternate API via ioctl codes until it gets >accepted as being worthy of the kernel.
How about making the trailing slash on a file name significant? If you open "myfile" you get the file's data, but if you opendir "myfile/" then you get the directory of its attributes and sub-objects. For the hack, have the directory listing include entries "file" and "file/". That would possibly break some code with double slashes in path names due to composing the directory path with a subdirectory, such as "file//content-type". But if the OS removed double slashes or treated them as single, then it could work. - Alex
