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

Paul Jakma
2004-09-03T16:48:40Z

On Fri, 3 Sep 2004, Spam wrote:

> Indeed. I hope I didn't say otherwise :).

Sure.

> Just that I think it will
> be very difficult to have this transparency in all apps. Just
> thinking of "nano file.jpg/description.txt" or "ls
> file.tar/untar/*.doc". Sure in some environments like Gnome it could
> work, but it still doesn't for the rest of the flora of Linux
> programs.

"will it be transparent for all apps?", whether that's worth doing
depends on the technical implications. Thankfully we have Al and
Linus to make the judgement call on that ;)

Personally, I think that if GNOME can provide transparency for GNOME
users, I think that's probably enough - unless there are literally no
issues in adding some kind of VFS support.

The nano / ls /tar user is likely a very different user to the GNOME
user. That user is also likely to appreciate the problems with
backups and such more.

Anyway, userspace transparency is sufficient for most classes of
users. Only reason to provide some kernel support is if it makes
sense ("but not all apps can use GNOME transparency" not being one of
those reasons).

regards,
--
Paul Jakma paul@clubi.ie paul@jakma.org Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
Beat your son every day; you may not know why, but he will.