From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Hans Reiser Subject: Re: Plugin authoring. Date: Sun, 06 Nov 2005 22:56:58 -0800 Message-ID: <436EFABA.6070408@namesys.com> References: <200511050017.20410.pvh@uvic.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: Errors-To: flx@namesys.com In-Reply-To: <200511050017.20410.pvh@uvic.ca> List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: Peter van Hardenberg Cc: reiserfs-list@namesys.com Peter van Hardenberg wrote: >Hans, > >We would like to spend some time and arrange a plugin that would allow all >files to be usable as directories for arbitrary data. > >Our reading suggests that this could probably be done with an object plugin >that combines the functionality of Files and Directories. > >As for the problem of hard links, we will simply disallow them. > Sounds ok to me. Especially if implemented as a plugin so that people who really need hard links can just not use that plugin. At some later time, you/we can deal with the cycle detection problem and consider turning them back on. > Although they >have their uses, file-directories have their own interesting applications >which I believe deserve exploration regardless of the outstanding problem. > >Now that we have found our course, we would appreciate some advice on getting >started writing a plugin. I have read commentary that there is no "plugin >author's document" and that the source code will reveal all to those willing >to read it. Well, we are willing to read and hack, but need a few stars to >navigate by. > > Just start reading the regular unix file and directory plugins, and compose a long email with questions about how they work. >What code should we read in particular? Are there relatively simple examples >we may follow? Is there API documentation for the storage layer? If weekend >warriors are to be able to hack on Reiser, perhaps they can learn from our >experience. According to my limited research, there are no third-party >plugins yet that we can learn from. > > You are correct. Edward Shishkin is as close as we get to a third-party.;-) (He is doing the compression plugin, and was not an author of the regular plugins, but he works in the same office as the guys who did.....) >Peter > > >