fs indexing/ querying on meta-data

fs indexing/ querying on meta-data

[Tobias Pflug]

Hi everyone,

At university I am currently dealing with file indexing/query features
as they exist in the BeFS or SkyFS. In BeFS you could commit a query like:

(name == "*.c" || name == "*.h" ) && size > 20000

API functions were available to commit such queries which would use some 
attribute b-tree to find matching files.

Now to get to the point: I would like to implement such functionality on 
a very basic level (Only very simple queries) for a fs in the linux 
kernel. I thought of parsing files in userland, extracting any usable 
meta-data (such as id3 tags) and storing them as extended attributes of 
the respective
files.

My problem is that I am not sure on which approach I should take on 
this. Should I attempt to hack such functionality into an existing fs ? 
If so, which one would be suited best? Maybe the much discussed 
reiser4-plugin-interface could actually be useful for this one?

I also considered using FiST (http://www.am-utils.org/project-fist.html, 
stackable filesystem language)
but the development seems to be stalled, I am having issues with 
compilation, the author doesn't respond
and I read about people having major issues with it (segfaults etc..)

Finally there is the option of using FUSE, but I have to admit I haven't 
had a closer look at it yet.

I hope this posting isn't so clueless&chaotic that people can't be 
bothered to answer :) I'd be thankful
for any word of advice and/or pointers on this topic.

regards,
Tobi

PS: please CC to tobias.pflug@gmx.net , I am not subscribed to lkml. 
Thank you!

Re: fs indexing/ querying on meta-data

[Josef Sipek]

On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 08:12:58PM +0100, Tobias Pflug wrote:
...
> I also considered using FiST (http://www.am-utils.org/project-fist.html, 
> stackable filesystem language)
> but the development seems to be stalled, I am having issues with 
> compilation, the author doesn't respond
> and I read about people having major issues with it (segfaults etc..)
 
Hrm. Did you try the mailing list? The development is kind of slow, but
there are people that'll gladly accept patches :)
 
Josef "Jeff" Sipek.

-- 
NT is to UNIX what a doughnut is to a particle accelerator.