History plugin in ReiserFS?

History plugin in ReiserFS?

[Toomas Laasik]

Hello,

I was wondering if reiserfs has some sort of history plugin. I want a
filesystem that manages files similar to CVS or SVN so that I can say for
example that "I want asdasd.txt file exactly as it was on 15.10.2005
14:20:05" and I can get it. Of cource keeping that kind of "changelog"
takes much room on disk, but I assume one could set a percentage of disk
space for history and/or max days to keep history from.

It is one of my university projects to make this kind of filesystem or
modify some existing filesystem eg ReiserFS.

Any sugestions how to implement or where to start? Is something like that
made already? Do you think that extending ReiserFS would be a good option?
I searched Google trying to find some material about writing ReiserFS
plugins, but found very little useful. Maybe it's easier to start from
scratch? The goal is not to make production safe filesystem, but just
accomplish my task. Of cource if it is possible I would like that what I
do is useful not only to me but for others who might want something
similar too.

Thanks in advance,

Toomas

Re: History plugin in ReiserFS?

[Hans Reiser]

Toomas Laasik wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I was wondering if reiserfs has some sort of history plugin. I want a
>filesystem that manages files similar to CVS or SVN so that I can say for
>example that "I want asdasd.txt file exactly as it was on 15.10.2005
>14:20:05" and I can get it. Of cource keeping that kind of "changelog"
>takes much room on disk, but I assume one could set a percentage of disk
>space for history and/or max days to keep history from.
>  
>
Nothing yet exists, it should be done, and I encourage the doing of it.

>It is one of my university projects to make this kind of filesystem or
>modify some existing filesystem eg ReiserFS.
>  
>
Please send a design document.

>Any sugestions how to implement or where to start? Is something like that
>made already? Do you think that extending ReiserFS would be a good option?
>  
>
Yes.

>I searched Google trying to find some material about writing ReiserFS
>plugins, but found very little useful. 
>
The assumption made is that people who write plugins read the source
code.;-)   We get complaints from people about  our comments being too
long (oy veh), so.....

The other thing to do is to join our developers list, and ask lots of
questions.

>Maybe it's easier to start from
>scratch? The goal is not to make production safe filesystem, but just
>accomplish my task.
>
Why bother to write code if a few million aren't going to use it?  It is
always better to write less code and get it stable so it is widely
used......


> Of cource if it is possible I would like that what I
>do is useful not only to me but for others who might want something
>similar too.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Toomas
>
>
>
>  
>
welcome to our community.

Hans

Re: History plugin in ReiserFS?

[Redeeman]

On Sun, 2005-10-30 at 11:13 -0800, Hans Reiser wrote:
> Toomas Laasik wrote:
> 
> >Hello,
> >
> >I was wondering if reiserfs has some sort of history plugin. I want a
> >filesystem that manages files similar to CVS or SVN so that I can say for
> >example that "I want asdasd.txt file exactly as it was on 15.10.2005
> >14:20:05" and I can get it. Of cource keeping that kind of "changelog"
> >takes much room on disk, but I assume one could set a percentage of disk
> >space for history and/or max days to keep history from.
> >  
> >
> Nothing yet exists, it should be done, and I encourage the doing of it.
> 
it is not implemented directly in the kernel yet, afaik, but fuse
filesystems do exists which does this, i know of two, which can
accomplish it.
cvsfs - it mounts cvs, thus having version control, but requires cvs
server
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cvsfs

then there is wayback, which is kinda a bridge between any filesystem,
and the version controlled, so lets say you have /mnt/bigstorage, with a
mofo raid mounted, then you do this:
mkdir /mnt/cvsfs
fusemount wayback_thing /mnt/bigstorage /mnt/cvsfs..
^^ not how you do, but you get the idea.
http://wayback.sourceforge.net/

> >It is one of my university projects to make this kind of filesystem or
> >modify some existing filesystem eg ReiserFS.
> >  
> >
> Please send a design document.
> 
> >Any sugestions how to implement or where to start? Is something like that
> >made already? Do you think that extending ReiserFS would be a good option?
> >  
> >
> Yes.
> 
> >I searched Google trying to find some material about writing ReiserFS
> >plugins, but found very little useful. 
> >
> The assumption made is that people who write plugins read the source
> code.;-)   We get complaints from people about  our comments being too
> long (oy veh), so.....
> 
> The other thing to do is to join our developers list, and ask lots of
> questions.
> 
> >Maybe it's easier to start from
> >scratch? The goal is not to make production safe filesystem, but just
> >accomplish my task.
> >
> Why bother to write code if a few million aren't going to use it?  It is
> always better to write less code and get it stable so it is widely
> used......
> 
> 
> > Of cource if it is possible I would like that what I
> >do is useful not only to me but for others who might want something
> >similar too.
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >
> >Toomas
> >
> >
> >
> >  
> >
> welcome to our community.
> 
> Hans
> 
-- 
Redeeman <redeeman@metanurb.dk>