From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Alexander G. M. Smith" Subject: Re: File as a directory - VFS Changes Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 20:20:58 -0400 EDT Message-ID: <75229416615-BeMail@cr593174-a> References: <17050.62052.318426.711322@gargle.gargle.HOWL> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: Errors-To: flx@namesys.com In-Reply-To: <17050.62052.318426.711322@gargle.gargle.HOWL> List-Id: To: Nikita Danilov Cc: leocomerford@gmail.com, reiserfs-list@namesys.com, ninja@slaphack.com Nikita Danilov wrote on Mon, 30 May 2005 15:00:52 +0400: > Nothing in VFS prevents files from supporting both read(2) and > readdir(3). The problem is with link(2): VFS assumes that directories > form _tree_, that is, every directory has well-defined parent. At least that's one problem that's solveable. Just define one of the parents as the master parent directory, with a guaranteed path up to the root, and have the others as auxiliary parents. That also gives you a good path name to each and every file-thing. The VFS or the file system (depending on where the designers want to split the work) will still have to handle cycles in the graph to recompute the new master parents, when an old one gets deleted or moved. - Alex