Re: The argument for fs assistance in handling archives (was: silent semantic changes with reiser4)

viro
2004-09-02T22:00:27Z

On Thu, Sep 02, 2004 at 11:48:06PM +0200, Frank van Maarseveen wrote:
> mount is nice for root, clumsy for user. And a rather complicated
> way of accessing data the kernel has knowledge about in the first
> place. For filesystem images, cd'ing into the file is the most
> obvious concept for file-as-a-dir IMHO.

The hell it is.

a) kernel has *NO* *FUCKING* *KNOWLEDGE* of fs type contained on a device.
b) kernel has no way to guess which options to use
c) fs _type_ is a fundamental part of mount - device(s) (if any) involved
are arguments to be interpreted by that particular fs driver.
d) permissions required for that lovely operation (and questions like
whether we force nosuid/noexec, etc.) are nightmare to define.

Frankly, the longer that thread grows, the more obvious it becomes that
file-as-a-dir is a solution in search of problem. Desperate search, at
that.