Re: New module proposal: tracker

[Alan Cox <alan lxorguk ukuu org uk>]

> One short coming in this approach will be, It will cause a problem
> where multiple applications can be associated with a file-type, over a
> period of time. For instance, for .mbox files, the applications could
> vary like: Evolution, Mutt, Pine, Claws, Thunderbird, etc. And it is
> common among some people to switch between applications; not for email
> but other applications like PDF-viewer, etc. once in few months.

This requires some commonality about indexing and the meaning of
concepts. There isn't anything wrong with several apps indexing the one
file (preferably at the same time so we walk the filestore once).  A more
interesting problem is heirarchical breakdowns (a multipart mime email of
a zip holding a pdf and a jpg file) or xml documents with multiple
namespaces in use.

> subject is the metadata etc. So every time the user switches
> applications, the earlier collected meta-data might need some brushup.

That assumes that the old meta data is somehow "wrong". When an office
changes staff the way stuff is indexed may change a bit but the old index
doesn't become invalid or useless.

> many sites exist. For desktop the scale of the things is less,
> individual application-provided-search is enough and will satisfy the
> needs of most of the users. ctags, mairix etc. can provide specialized
> and more effective searching.

The notion that the internet and personal file store are separate is one
I would question. Why for example would I not be running a query across
my personal email and a company wide accumulated metadata source of all
the internal public mailing lists. Specialized searching is also very
different to general contexts. It is better at the one job but cannot
answer random queries or associations.

/home is a place where you keep stuff nobody else needs, or you
want fast access to, or you particularly don't want other people to have
access to. Indeed if you backup to an internet connected server its not
unreasonable to argue that user filestore is simply a cache, nothing more.

Alan