Re: silent semantic changes with reiser4

Will Dyson
2004-08-31T03:14:26Z

Hans Reiser wrote:
> I think there are two ways to analyze the code boundary issue. One is
> "does it belong in the kernel?" Another is, "does it belong in the
> filesystem. and if so should name resolution in a filesystem be split
> into two parts, one in kernel, and one in user space." In ten years I
> might have the knowledge needed to make such a split, but I know for
> sure that I don't know how to do it today without regretting it
> tomorrow, and I don't really have confidence that I will ever be able to
> do it without losing performance.

I don't see how exporting a set of indices on file attributes to
userspace constitutes putting part of the name resolution into
userspace. A file's name (or names, in the case of hardlinks) would
still be determined entirely within the filesystem.

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that "the index" is
the correct primative to use for exposing any filesystem's fast
searching features.

--
Will Dyson
"Back off man, I'm a scientist!" -Dr. Peter Venkman