RE: links

[Paul Hepworth <phepworth s-vision com>]

> > I agree.  If you want it to be robust, this is the way to go,
> > a more sophisticated filesystem, able to assign attributes
> > to file sytem objects.  The Windows implementation
> > is pretty flaky.  I hope we don't copy them too closely.
> > Updating every program to be EA-aware or .*lnk-aware
> > would be just *asking* for trouble.
> > 
> > Dean
> 
> It is impossible to do so.  GNOME's scope does not cover file systems.
> You
> cannot ask every Linux users to reformat their drives just to run
> GNOME.  Not
> to mention other Unices.
> 
> GNOME cannot also go this route, for the reasons of keeping
> compatibility with
> existing systems.   GNOME won't be accepted if it demands such
> "enhancement."
> 
Alas, we know this.  Because there is no filesystem support, we have two
options:

1)  use EAs on top of file system (i.e. ./.EAs/.EA.filename) and add mv,
cp, ln, etc that are EA-aware
(probably too fragile)
(For linux only, extfs could be enhanced to support EAs (ext2EA), but I
agree that this is outside the scope of gnome.)
EAs could be incorporated into the proposed virtual file system,
however!  All programs that access files through the vfs would be
EA-safe automatically.  (Wasn't it proposed that the vfs be the standard
way of accessing files and other data objects from Gnome applications?
Or am I thinking of some other project?)

2)  use something else, such as the proposed simple script with
attributes embedded in the comments.  We could still allow folders to
have EAs by placing a .EA file *inside* the folder (it will be moved
along with the folder).  Sadly, there is no robust way to add extended
attributes to other files (data files, etc.) without file system
support.

(Even with option (2), a specific application (e.g. desktop/file
manager) could take approach (1) in addition to this, being sure to
mv/cp EAs along with their associated files, but this behaviour should
be disabled by default, toggled on by power-users who understand the
"use at own risk" nature of the EAs.)


Paul