very simple datastore reimplementation

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On 5/8/08, Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-05-08 at 20:22 +0200, Marco Pesenti Gritti wrote:
> > On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 4:22 PM, Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org> wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2008-05-08 at 16:06 +0200, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
> > >  > On 5/8/08, Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org> wrote:
> > >  > > On Thu, 2008-05-08 at 13:09 +0000, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
> > >  > >
> > >  > > > I'm having trouble understanding what you are requesting and what
> > >  > > > could be done about that.
> > >  > > >
> > >  > > > Can you please enumerate the requirements that affect the internal
> > >  > > > file layout and any other view that we may be able to provide?
> > >  > >
> > >  > > That there is *some* hope of finding a file by a human in a raw file
> > >  > > system, that can be done with software already present on the system....
> > >  >
> > >  > With the proposed metadata text file, there's already that hope. You
> > >  > think it's not enough and you may very well be right. What I'm asking
> > >  > is: how big an effort are we willing to devote to this and until which
> > >  > point we want to compromise on robustness and simplicity?
> > >
> > >  Until we know what the tradeoffs really are, we need to explore in this
> > >  direction.  Names only as hashes has proved to be a major headache in
> > >  practice in the field.
> >
> > That's true. But I also think the FUSE layer will make a big
> > difference in this regard, at the point that it *might* be enough.
>
> This doesn't begin to deal with a USB stick taken to a Windows box...
> No FUSE on such systems.

Jim, FUSE would expose the internal structures in a POSIX way, so that
when someone copies (with cp) a file from the DS to a USB stick, that
file is a file as normal as it can be. The "internal structure" is
something private to the DS that doesn't get copied to the USB stick
and is never expected to get into a system without the DS software.

FUSE helps to get files out from the DS with POSIX apps and tools, has
nothing to do with USB sticks.

Only files inside the internal structure are named with strange hashes.

> Having to have two different naming systems (one local, one removable
> device) seems like duplication that should be avoided (if possible).

To which two different naming systems are you referring?

Thanks,

Tomeu