Re: what's next for the linux kernel?

[Marc Perkel <marc@perkel.com>]

Nikita Danilov wrote:

>Marc Perkel writes:
>
>[...]
>
> > Right - that's Unix "inside the box" thinking. The idea is to make the 
> > operating system smarter so that the user doesn't have to deal with 
> > what's computer friendly - but reather what makes sense to the user. 
> >  From a user's perspective if you have not rights to access a file then 
> > why should you be allowed to delete it?
>
>Because in Unix a name is not an attribute of a file.
>
>Files are objects that you read, write and truncate. They are
>represented by inodes.
>
>Separately from that, there is an indexing structure: directory
>tree. Directories map symbolical names to inodes. Obviously, adding a
>reference to an index, or removing it from one requires access
>permission to the _index_ rather then to the object being referenced.
>
>That two-level model of files and indexing on top of them is essential
>to Unix due to the flexibility and conceptual economy it provides.
>  
>
Now of you think "outside" the Linux box" you can see where people in 
the real world would expect that if you have no rights to a file to read 
or write to it that you shouldn't be able to delete it. In the outside 
world it's "duh - of course"! but for thouse that are in the "Unix Cult" 
you can't think past inodes.

> > 
> > Now - the idea is to create choice. If you need to emulate Unix nehavior 
> > for compatibility that's fine. But I would migrate away from that into a 
> > permissions paradygme that worked like Netware.
>
>And there are people believing that ITS (or VMS, or <insert your first
>passion here>...) set the standard to follow. :-)
>
>[...]
>
> > 
> > So - the thread is about the future so I say - time to fix Unix.
>
>One thing is clear: it's too late to fix Netware. Why should Unix
>emulate its lethal defects?
>
>Nikita.
>  
>

Once you'be had Netware permissions - even 1990 Netware permission - you 
are spoiled and everything else isn't even close.

-- 
Marc Perkel - marc@perkel.com

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