Alexander G. M. Smith wrote: >David L. Parsley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on Fri, 04 Jan 2002 19:23:11 -0500: > >>I'll agree that I initially thought the 'file as directory' idea had a >>very high cool factor - but Linus, Al Viro, etc. convinced me otherwise. >>This also makes me think you'll have a hard time getting the kernel >>changed to let you open a file as a directory. >> > >Why did they reject the idea? It seems to work so well, having >objects which have both contents (data like a file) and subobjects >(like a directory). Is there an objection other than it isn't the >traditional way of doing things? > >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. > >- Alex > >
Viro rejects (it isn't his father's Unix is I think the reason), Linus thinks it is fine and proved that VFS could handle files being directories. Hans
