Re: [Fwd: Re: [gentoo-dev] baselayout redefines /etc/fstab]

[John Nilsson]

On Tue, 2004-02-24 at 02:10, Greg KH wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2004 at 01:50:47AM +0100, John Nilsson wrote:
> > On Tue, 2004-02-24 at 00:22, Greg KH wrote:
> > > On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 11:41:04PM +0100, John Nilsson wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 2004-02-23 at 03:12, Greg KH wrote:
> > > > > On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 08:04:25PM +0100, John Nilsson wrote:
> > > > > > If you settle for reiser4 or such fs one could store all settings as
> > > > > > single files in a tree much like /proc/sys this tree could then be
> > > > > > exposed as an xml or other format for backward compatibility through
> > > > > > filsystem plugins...
> > > > >
> > > > > And you want to reinvent gconf for what reason?  :)
> > > > > greg k-h
> > > >
> > > > http://cda.mrs.umn.edu/~mine0057/fs.pdf
> > >
> > > Heh, my main point is that reiser4 is not here today, will not be here
> > > tomorrow, and will not be in wide use next month.  Next year it will
> > > only have a very small installed base, if any.
> > >
> > If you liked that one you might likte to read this too:
> >
> > http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/8/9/172159/7912
> >
> > or
> >
> > http://www.xs4all.nl/~evbergen/configuration-data.html
>
> Heh, you do realize that I am one of the developers of sysfs in the
> kernel, and currently wield the "only 1 value per file" big stick that I
> go around with and whack offending developers with?

Oh, sorry, I never pay attention! =) You are also the creator of udev,
correct?

With your experience with the code you should know, would it be hard to
implement the file/directory duality that comes natively with reiser4
into the VFS? This way reier4 would only by you performance...

Converting a single code base to a new interface (sysfs) wasn't painless
I imagine. Converting most of the OSS is impossible without an
intermideate solution and tremendous benefits for the individual
developers.
The tremendous gain, I belive, is there. What seems to be missing is a
transition and portability scheme.

Still it is so easy with reiser4 =) a plugin for /etc and all files that
are at all parseable is converted to a filetree at write.

-John

> I agree that 1 value per file is a very powerful and rich system that
> can be used to show all sorts of data, that's why we did it for the
> kernel innards.  To quote lwn.net, sysfs is a "web woven by a spider on
> drugs."   It has already caused a zillion usages that the original
> developers never imagined, which proves the model is a good one.
>
> So to do the same thing for userspace programs makes loads of sense.
> Remember disk space is cheap :)
>
> thanks,
>
> greg k-h