Re: Writing a GVFS backend

[jf dockes org]

Bastien Nocera writes:
> On Thu, 2013-05-02 at 16:46 +0200, jf dockes org wrote:
> > Bastien Nocera writes:
> >  > On Thu, 2013-05-02 at 12:44 +0200, jf dockes org wrote:
> >  > > Hi,
> >  > > 
> >  > > Apologies in advance if this is a FAQ, please just point me to the right
> >  > > place... The question:
> >  > > 
> >  > > Is it possible to write a GVFS backend out of the Gnome source tree ?
> >  > 
> >  > No. The API isn't public.
> >
> > Thanks, and sorry to be a little thick, just so I'm sure I fully understand: 
> > this means that there is no way to extend (à la KIO) a GVFS/GIO-based file
> > manager to support another kind of "file store/catalog" except by modifying
> > Gnome source ?
>
> If by "Gnome source" you mean gvfs, then yes, that's correct.
>
> What were you looking to do?

I was thinking of an interface to a search application (Recoll). It has a
KIO that some people use (I don't use it because displaying file names as
search results is generally not helpful for my needs, but it all depends on
the data).

I was wondering if I could write the same kind of module for GVFS, with the
idea that it might be usable with, for exemple Thunar. This is very
preliminary, and there may be other reasons why this would not work, but
I'm just starting.

Such a module would bring obviously unacceptable dependancies to the
main tree, which is why, to make any sense, it has to live outside the
tree, and be installable/loadable independantly (like the KIO is to KDE).

I was expecting the GVFS/GIO to have this kind of extensibility, because,
once you've defined such an interface, it seems natural to let other
people add unexpected stuff under it... But maybe I'm just completely
missing the point, this is my first brush with the subject.

jf