Return-Path: Received: from fn.samba.org ([216.83.154.106]:38119 "EHLO lists.samba.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753667Ab0HHMML (ORCPT ); Sun, 8 Aug 2010 08:12:11 -0400 Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 05:12:09 -0700 From: Jeremy Allison To: Neil Brown Cc: Jeremy Allison , Jeff Layton , utz lehmann , Linus Torvalds , Volker.Lendecke@sernet.de, David Howells , Jan Engelhardt , linux-cifs@vger.kernel.org, linux-nfs@vger.kernel.org, samba-technical@lists.samba.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk, linux-fsde@jasper.es Subject: Re: [PATCH 02/18] xstat: Add a pair of system calls to make extended file stats available [ver #6] Message-ID: <20100808121208.GA7329@jeremy-laptop> Reply-To: Jeremy Allison References: <20100715021709.5544.64506.stgit@warthog.procyon.org.uk> <20100715021712.5544.44845.stgit@warthog.procyon.org.uk> <30448.1279800887@redhat.com> <1280524978.2452.9.camel@segv.aura.of.mankind> <20100801092529.5e6ba0e0@corrin.poochiereds.net> <20100805235218.GB31233@jeremy-laptop> <20100806133836.49757af9@notabene> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <20100806133836.49757af9@notabene> Sender: linux-nfs-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 On Fri, Aug 06, 2010 at 01:38:36PM +1000, Neil Brown wrote: > I'm curious. Why do you particularly care what interface the kernel uses to > provide you with access to this attribute? It's a matter of taste. The *BSD's have this right IMHO. It should be part of the stat information. A file timestamp is not an EA. Making it available that way just feels like an appalingly tasteless kludge. It offends the artist in me :-). > Or do you really want something like BSD's 'btime' which as I understand it > cannot be set. Would that be really useful to you? It is *already* useful to us, and is widely used in existing code. The occasions when btime is set are relatively rare, and at that point we store it in a separate EA for Windows reporting purposes. Jeremy.