>> hpa@transmeta.com (H. Peter Anvin) writes:
>> Most of the uses for "forky files" apply to executables, though.
> What, exactly, are the ``uses for "forky files"''? Most people seem to
> assume it is somehow necessary to store per file icons (which I think is
> wrong, I want per file *type* icons, which I'll be happy to define
> elsewhere) and file type (which /etc/magic seems to deal with just fine)
> along with each file. Why? And what other meta information is it
> necessary to store?
Nowadays Meta File Information is *really* useful IMO.
Current filesystem concepts have been tought when storage media were not so
HUGE. 8Gb and larger hard drives are now very cheap: I cannot manage such
a large amount of information without having some sort of extra information
for each file.
Possible meta file information uses, apart from icons, are:
- DESCRIPTION: I don't want long file names to describe the content;
- KEYWORDS: I would like to add keywords for local "altavista-like" programs
(for instance, to retrieve .gif images);
- URL: I want to know from which URL I have downloaded a given file;
- STATUS: I would like to mark a file with tags such as "downloaded but not
tried yet", "temporary, remove when space is needed", "current working
version", "backup file", etc. Of course, I would like to use 'find'
to retrieve all the files with a given tag;
- VERSION: I would like to avoid file names such as xxxx-1.0.1b2.tgz;
- MIME TYPE (without relying on the name extension);
- SECURITY ATTRIBUTES such as ACLs;
- ARCHITECTURE: platform on which an application runs;
- CUSTOM INFORMATION: for any application I develop;
I might continue. I agree that backward compatibility is a fundamental issue,
but I don't agree that meta file information would be useless. Unfortunately,
compatibility with the past has always slowed the evolution of computer
systems: we have incredibly powerful systems, but we still have to write:
xxx-yyy-i386-linux-1.0.102-b2.tgz
-- Pietro Iglio
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