Re: [PATCH] Make use of stat.ctime configurable

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> writes:

> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, David Brown wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 08:31:28AM +0200, Alex Riesen wrote:
>> 
>> > because there are situations where it produces too much false
>> > positives. Like when file system crawlers keep changing it when
>> > scanning and using the ctime for marking scanned files.
>> 
>> That's interesting, since most backup software uses the ctime to determine
>> file changes.
>
> It really is just Beagle that is (was? I can dream) a piece of 
> unbelievable crap.
>
> Anybody who uses extended attributes as part of a indexing scheme is just 
> insane. Modifying the file you are indexing is not just fundamentally 
> wrong to begin with, but it will then also be incredibly inefficient to 
> read those entries one at a time.

It's a typo and you are saying it _is_ fundamentally wrong, aren't you?

If you are prepared to pick up new files, you need to crawl everywhere
anyway, so if the xattr is used to leave a mark "The last time I looked at
this file was this" in the file itself, it does not sound too bad to me.
It would be irritating that it touches ctime, though, but I do not use it
so it is not my problem ;-)

http://beagle-project.org/FAQ "Do I really need extended attributes?"
talks about BEAGLE_DISABLE_XATTR environment variable and interestingly
it says disabling use of xattr would slow you down.