Re: Questions about Gnome-VFS

[nf <nf2 scheinwelt at>]

Hi!

On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 09:18, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 03:07 +0100, nf wrote:

> > 1) Main loop: Is glib main loop required for all Gnome-VFS operations or
> > only for the async operations? Or is it only used for certain modules?
> > (Do some modules iterate the main-loop inside synchronous calls
> > recursively for internal communication?).
> 
> main loop is only needed for async operations and some extras like
> volume monitor and change notification.
> 

So i don't really need to patch glib main loop into kio-slavebase when i
stick to using synchronous functions.


> > 2) The GnomeVFSDaemon: What's the purpose of this daemon? Is it only
> > used for the async operations?
> 
> Its used for a couple of reasons:
> a) We put some module in it to make sure they have a sane environment
> with a glib mainloop and to allow sharing connections and authentication
> between several processes.

So if you have a module in the daemon, the synchronous calls get
forwarded to the daemon via corba? And the functions calls (like
"gnome_vfs_open()") wait inside some kind of socket read() statement
inside the corba-client for the answer? 

Without a main loop in the client - is it still possible that the server
process can callback the client to ask for a password?

> > 3) Sessions: Does Gnome-VFS have a notion of sessions between the
> > desktop and a resource. For instance if you have a ftp-server, which
> > only allows one session per user, but multiple applications on your
> > desktop want to communicate with that server. Can Gnome-VFS "serialize"
> > all communication to that server in a single session?
> 
> Not really, apart from putting the module in the daemon.

For which protocols do you plan this?

> 
> > 4) User credentials: Where and for how long does Gnome-VFS keep them?
> > Are they stored per client process when i use the synchronous functions?
> 
> Stored per-process.

So not really useful for a "Common-VFS" as long as you don't move
modules to the daemon.

> 
> > 5) What about GnomeVFSVolume and GnomeVFSDrive? What's their role in the
> > whole game? Are they related to authentication and sessions? When i
> > connect to a server via gnome_vfs_open(uri) - does Gnome-VFS
> > automatically create a Volume or Drive object?
> 
> No. They are not related to uris really. They are objects describing the
> storage devices and media connected to the machine.

Could the "Volume" (or Drive) objects be used to represent sessions and
to store session related information like user credentials? For instance
it would be very convenient that with connecting to an uri like
ftp://userxyz server com/ and authenticating, an extra "ftp" volume icon
gets listed on my desktop and file-dialogs. Gnome-VFS should remember my
ftp password until i click "eject".

How could i export the "Volume" metaphor to KDE? Is there any
freedesktop standard on volumes and drives? Is there a "pseudo protocol"
like "volumes:" or "drives:" which exports the list of those items and
which can be monitored for changes?

Thanks a lot!

Norbert