Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S269570AbUICFWU (ORCPT ); Fri, 3 Sep 2004 01:22:20 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S269569AbUICFWU (ORCPT ); Fri, 3 Sep 2004 01:22:20 -0400 Received: from rwcrmhc12.comcast.net ([216.148.227.85]:60093 "EHLO rwcrmhc12.comcast.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S269534AbUICFWO (ORCPT ); Fri, 3 Sep 2004 01:22:14 -0400 Message-ID: <4137FF87.8080002@namesys.com> Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2004 22:22:15 -0700 From: Hans Reiser User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Linus Torvalds CC: David Masover , viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk, Frank van Maarseveen , Dave Kleikamp , Alan Cox , Jamie Lokier , Horst von Brand , Adrian Bunk , Christoph Hellwig , fsdevel , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Alexander Lyamin aka FLX , ReiserFS List Subject: Re: The argument for fs assistance in handling archives References: <20040826150202.GE5733@mail.shareable.org> <200408282314.i7SNErYv003270@localhost.localdomain> <20040901200806.GC31934@mail.shareable.org> <1094118362.4847.23.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20040902203854.GA4801@janus> <1094160994.31499.19.camel@shaggy.austin.ibm.com> <20040902214806.GA5272@janus> <20040902220027.GD23987@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> <4137B5F5.8000402@slaphack.com> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.85.0.0 X-Enigmail-Supports: pgp-inline, pgp-mime Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1846 Lines: 49 Linus Torvalds wrote: >On Thu, 2 Sep 2004, David Masover wrote: > > >>reiser4 kernel will contain knowledge of fs type contained in a file. >> >> Whoa! No it won't. It will allow you to create a metafile named type if you choose. Or maybe a metadirectory named types, I don't really care much about this stuff yet, we need to do other things to the semantics more urgently than this, Typing requires a lot of cooperation from user space apps. I don't really expect to have that much social pull on the issue, but if someone chooses to design their app to use a types metadirectory, I don't mind accomodating on it. I apologize if from my saying that I gave the impression that I think files should be strongly typed. I am quite well aware of the disadvantages of OS/400 hindering usability with type information, as well the advantages of having types available for those that want to look at them..... > >That's a disaster, btw. > > In every implementation so far it has been a net disaster, because OS designers who type things have been willing to make users pay attention to type when they don't want to. Sometimes trying to make too much out of something makes it a mistake when being a bit more laid back would make it ok. Me, I am so laid back, I prefer to work on other features for a few years first.....;-) >There is no one "fs type" of a file. Files have at _least_ one type >(bytestream), but most have more. Which is why automatically doing the >right thing (in the sense you seem to want) in kernel space is simply not >possible. > > Linus > > > > - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/