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Re: [PATCH] Revised extended attributes interface

To: Nathan Scott <nathans@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Revised extended attributes interface
From: Hans Reiser <reiser@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2001 23:17:21 +0300
Cc: "Stephen C . Tweedie" <sct@xxxxxxxxxx>, Andreas Gruenbacher <ag@xxxxxxxxxxx>, linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, linux-fsdevel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, linux-xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx
References: <20011205143209.C44610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> <20011207202036.J2274@xxxxxxxxxx> <20011208155841.A56289@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: owner-linux-xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:0.9.6) Gecko/20011120
Nathan Scott wrote:



In a way there's consensus wrt how to do POSIX ACLs on Linux
now, as both the ext2/ext3 and XFS ACL projects will be using
the same tools, libraries, etc.  In terms of other ACL types,
I don't know of anyone actively working on any.


We are taking a very different approach to EAs (and thus to ACLs) as described in brief at www.namesys.com/v4/v4.html. We don't expect anyone to take us seriously on it before it works, but silence while coding does not equal consensus.;-)

In essence, we think that if a file can't do what an EA can do, then you need to make files able to do more.

It is very important not to reduce the amount of closure (as in mathematical closure) within the namespace, and creating EAs that cannot be accessed as files reduces closure.

The same argument applies to streams, but it is kind of interesting to see people argue against streams for this reason, and then embrace EAs. Kind of leaves you wondering whether their hatred of streams was really any deeper than streams aren't what they are used to from Unix.

Hans



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