Re: Extended attributes, Linux and GNOME

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Thu, 2003-04-03 at 19:29, Manuel Amador (Rudd-O) wrote:
> >
> >In other words, GNOME becomes some driving force that screws over its
> >users who suddenly find they lose metadata across backups or whatnot,
> >all for the goal of furthering a technology that's coming along just
> >fine as is... ?
> >
> No.  Sean, *read* what I wrote.  I say GNOME *should support EAs now*.  
> I do NOT say GNOME *must rely on EAs now*.

Well, then GNOME would have to write out both EA's and the XML metadata,
which just seems a bit of a waste of time/resources, no?

> 
> >>Trust me.  We can use EAs now.  There's nothing with the current 
> >>metafile method that couldn't be done with an EAs ipmlementation.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >Except be reliable.  ;-)
> >
> This is the behavior I'd like:
> 
> Say you got your /var mounted without EA support, but your /home mounted 
> with EA support.
> 
> Nautilus should use .nautilus-metafiles in /var.  Nautilus should use 
> EAs in /home.  Perhaps Nautilus may keep a copy of the metadata as 
> .nautilus-metafiles in /home, but use EAs as the primary source.  So if 

Righty, that would be necessary for any kind of reliability - but then
its a waste.  I'd think it better to just wait for user-space to fully
support EA's, then let Nautilus/GVFS switch over to them completely
(when on file-systems that support it).

Also be good to have Nautilus/Gnome-VFS be capable of recognizing when
moving/copying files between different mount points, and converting
attr's between xml dotfiles and EA's - also warn when security
permissiosn (ACL's, etc.) will be lost or modified.

> you decide to downgrade to Red Hat 5.2 tomorrow (exaggeration), 
> everything would still work and your data would be safe.
> 
> As you can see, EAs and most other things are per-volume options, not 
> per-computer.

Yes, I know.  I actually run all my systems with kernels patched for
EA's - I find them rather useful especially on my servers w/ web and MUD
directories (the ACL's bit of EA's, anyways).

> 
> >
> >  
> >
> >>luck,
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
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> >>gnome-devel-list gnome org
> >>http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-devel-list
> >>    
> >>
> 
> 
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-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.