> How would such a metadata system work? If it uses a file per file, or > EAs then it would instantly be as slow as sniffing. If it used a > metadata system with e.g. one file per directory it could be fast, but > that adds a *lot* of complexity with locking and consistancy handling, > file permissions, and possible out-of-process communication. There has > been thoughs about a common metadata system, but they are far from near > implementation, and there are many issues to solve. Well, one way to do it is have the metadata be stored by something like medusa (or another such metadata-indexing daemon). I would imagine an absolute path lookup of a given file could be made faster than sniffing every file. > Additionally a metadata-based system would mean any non-nautilus > operation on the file could make it drop the metadata, leave metadata > around forever, or make the metadata stale. It would also have problems > with read-only media and probably other complications. Well, if we can get rid of fam/dnotify and replace it with a decent file-change notification system that doesn't require an open file descriptor to monitor, the indexing daemon can sniff the mime type when it gets a file-created event (or changed). If it felt like updating the EAs (where appropriate) that would be doable, too. This method does have the drawback of persistently storing the metadata rather than querying it only when required, so diskspace might be an issue. Such a system could evolve into something that handled a lot of the current . . . "sticky" issues with files and applications. I could imagine file indexers that handle pulling "extra" metadata from specific file formats (thumbnail?, .desktop files?). With that and a decent search interface it might be reasonable to have a lot of the ugly-gnome-vfs-scheme-hacks (applications://, applications-all-users://, all-applications://, etc.) just go away in favor of the "All application/x-gnome-app-info where OnlyShowIn=GNOME and NotShowIn!=GNOME" or something similar. Of course I could be channeling the spirit of Bowie Poag here, but it seems to me something along those lines could be very useful. It actually sounds similar to some pieces of both storage and medusa. > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > Alexander Larsson Red Hat, Inc > alexl redhat com alla lysator liu se > He's a bookish soccer-playing werewolf gone bad. She's a strong-willed snooty > safe cracker descended from a line of powerful witches. They fight crime! -- --Shahms
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