On Wed, 16 Oct 2002 14:15:24 -0800, Ethan Benson wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 17, 2002 at 12:04:00AM +0200, Andi Kleen wrote:
> > > xfs already honors an extended attribute for files only, the
> > > maintainers believe that honoring such a thing for directories is
> > > evil.
> >
> > If 'the maintainers' really said such a thing then I disagree with
> > the maintainers. Honoring it for directories should be fine and I
> > can think of applications for it.
>
> fine look up the list archives if you don't believe me. when the
> change was first commited Ivan used the word evil specifically when
> referring to nodump on dirs. there was a more detailed discussion a
> few monthes later, thier concern appears primarily security.
By the "maintainers" you mean me, since I was the one that implemented
it.
I don't remember using the word 'evil' -- obviously I was just
grandstanding.
It wasn't done for directories for 2 main reasons, that I recall:
1. Security. I didn't like the idea of the owner of a directory
deciding whether files, that might be hidden in the depths of
a directory tree and could be owned by others, get dumped or
not. To allow this would be ... evil! :)
2. Simplicity and performance. To expand this for directories in
xfsdump would mean a fair bit more work (which would not have
been approved as a project), and probably a real performance
hit during dump processing.
Ivan
--
Ivan Rayner
ivanr@xxxxxxx
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