From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Hubert Chan Subject: Re: Carrying Attributes too Far Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 23:39:34 -0400 Sender: news Message-ID: <87k78ct4w9.fsf@labatt.uhoreg.ca> References: <3F60925F.9000004@namesys.com> <3122307789-BeMail@cr593174-a> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: Errors-To: flx@namesys.com List-Id: To: reiserfs-list@namesys.com >>>>> "Alexander" =3D=3D Alexander G M Smith writes: [...] Alexander> I'd also like to attach a BeOS style MIME type attribute to Alexander> everything, even attributes (and you wouldn't have to name Alexander> the file .jpeg any more). Of course, you will eventually get Alexander> to primitive attributes that are only a coded byte in the Alexander> metadata rather than a whole file. But the user shouldn't be Alexander> able to tell, and even the MIME type attribute could have a Alexander> fake attribute on it saying that it is of type "text/plain", Alexander> or perhaps more explicitly "text/mime-string". AFAICT, MIME types should be user-entered data (or divined from file extensions, or placed there by a web browser, etc.) They probably shouldn't be automatically generated. So the MIME/MIME/... loop would only go as far as the user would care to enter the data, which probably won't be very far. I suppose that MIME data could be generated by a plugin that used file(1), but any plugin that took the MIME nesting too far (i.e. more than one level) should probably be taken out and shot. Alexander> To avoid too much recursion, "ls" and other utilities should Alexander> know which things are primitive things, and avoid trying to Alexander> list their contents. The easiest way to cram that in would Alexander> be to add another attribute: Alexander> Graphic.jpeg/MIME/Primitive contains "true", or maybe a Alexander> single byte value that is non-zero. Pick one. I think that the easiest thing would be to just say that if MIME doesn't contain a MIME attribute, then it's "primitive" (or whatever). You'll have a lot of files floating around that won't have MIME attributes anyways. Even if you had a file(1) plugin, since file(1) can't identify everything (and misidentifies some things). Alexander> Note it's not Graphic.jpeg/MIME/.Primitive since using a dot Alexander> prefix to hide things may no longer be necessary - another Alexander> attribute could take over that job, perhaps call it Alexander> HideFromUser. "hidden" is much preferable over "HideFromUser". =2D-=20 Hubert Chan - http://www.uhoreg.ca/ PGP/GnuPG key: 1024D/124B61FA Fingerprint: 96C5 012F 5F74 A5F7 1FF7 5291 AF29 C719 124B 61FA Key available at wwwkeys.pgp.net. Encrypted e-mail preferred. --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQA/Y+L6rynHGRJLYfoRAuuxAJ0bzZsVCeWqSTCnGzTdaY5AWscPpwCfdYrn 9Liwq1Bu9vAtgtmCa4a2TA8= =m9po -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--