Re: The argument for fs assistance in handling archives

Linus Torvalds
2004-09-02T06:04:45Z

On Wed, 1 Sep 2004, David Masover wrote:
>
> I think transactions should be done in kernel space. It's the only way
> to "enforce" them sanely.

Well, they clearly can't, since it depends on the filesystem. Also,
transactions have a tendency to be expensive, and people have a tendency
to ask for more than you give them. Doing transactions on one file is
only the beginning - you'll find people who want transactions across file
boundaries etc.

That's a basic fact when it comes to pretty much anything: you can always
find people who want something better. You can't be all things to all
people, so what you actually _want_ to do is to expose the _minimal_ set
of capabilities that people can build on.

So I definitely don't want this discussion to degenerate (any more than it
lng since has ;) into what people _wish_ for. No, it should be a "what is
the _least_ we can absolutely do" that solves real problems.

Linus