Date:	Fri, 2 May 1997 10:20:36 -0400 (EDT)
From:	Pierre Phaneuf <pp AT gulliver DOT qc DOT ca>
To:	OpenDOS List <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Subject:	Re: A few FS notions
In-Reply-To:	<199705020534.RAA18805@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>
Message-ID:	<Pine.LNX.3.95.970502100940.5392A-100000@server.gulliver.qc.ca>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On Fri, 2 May 1997, Mr M S Aitchison wrote:

> I think we need "classes" of file, as well as specific creators, to cope with
> the last situation at least. You could probably get away with a single byte
> to describe the type of system and the type of program teh file came from.

I think a specific "creator" like the Mac has isn't a very good idea... I
think that a file should be self-contained, no? Too often on Macintoshes,
I get problems becauses the file type in the filesystem doesn't match what
the file really is (because it was transferred over FTP for example)... I
think a Unix-like "file" program would be better if you have to know the
type of the file. Maybe a special option to make it return a MIME type? If
we *really* have to use type information in the filesystem, PLEASE!! make
it be MIME types! Some kind of standard is good to have and rely on...

> I also think some "optional" attributes are so important that they
> should be not simply covered by a "name" string that is hopefuly unique
> to the IFS manager. For example it should be possible for an
> installable file system or attribute system to say it is providing a
> type of access control facility, and there should be standards on what
> is provided.  Apart from that, it could be purely a matter between the
> installed driver and the program using it.

A think the best way to do this would be like Linux, with a full-featured
VFS (Virtual Filesystem) that maps to the real drivers. Linux can mount
"weak" FS like FAT or VFAT by providing "magic" attributes, attributes
demeed correct (possibly configurable somewhere)... Like FAT files in a
ACL world are world read/write, unless it has the read-only bit on, where
it changes to read-only, and so on...

Pierre Phaneuf

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