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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!nntp.inet.fi!news.funet.fi!news.abo.fi!not-for-mail From: mandtbac@news.abo.fi (Mats Andtbacka) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Ideal filesystem Followup-To: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Date: 11 Mar 1996 16:30:19 GMT Organization: Unorganized Usenet Postings UnInc. Lines: 40 Distribution: comp Message-ID: <4i1ker$4or@josie.abo.fi> References: <4gejrb$ogj@floyd.sw.oz.au> <4gilab$97u@park.uvsc.edu> <4giqu8$aqk@park.uvsc.edu> <4gira2$a9d@park.uvsc.edu> <hpa.31321eee.I.use.Linux@freya.yggdrasil.com> <4h7t5i$qoh@park.uvsc.edu> <DnoqB4.2sy@pe1chl.ampr.org> Reply-To: mandtbac@abo.fi NNTP-Posting-Host: fa.abo.fi X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950520BETA PL0] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:19833 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:15832 G Sumner Hayes, in <glDH59i00YUvFFjspX@andrew.cmu.edu>: >Sorry for the second post in rapid succession in reply to the same >thread, but I thought it a good idea to break the two apart. If you >were to start implementing a new general purpose filesystem under a >Unix-like OS, what considerations would be important? What features >would you find absolutely necessary? What would be nice to have? you're trying to design (at a rough guess) twice as many different filesystems as you'll get responses. ;-) different people have different needs for diierent things, and in all likelihood no one system can address them all. that said, some things _would_ be nice to have: - a journalling filesystem of some kind. make it decently crashproof for the maximum-data-safety-while-under-artillery-shelling-with-only- a-lightning-rod-for-a-powersource-and-the-weather-clearing-up crowd. make it so that filesystems can be automagically expanded, like the AIX journalled(?) fs does it, because that's generally agreed to be c00l. try and make it fast, but that's probably not a priority. - a *really, really fast* filesystem for people running big news spools. this could be a modification of the ext2fs, using async metadata (who gives a hoot if news gets fried?) and fragments a la FFS, to minimize disk wastage. build this one to be a screamer, and ignore safety concerns; those who want to use it may do so at their own risk. - for the future: a filesystem that can associate POSIX.6 - style data with files. running POSIX.6 security, a binary needs at least two bitmasks, for which security properties it can have (allowed accesses, as it were) and which it must have (accesses it will be given); each of these will be in the few dozen bits range, and for expandability you'll want to provide for maybe three of them, of maybe 128 bits each (or more). that, and ACLs on this one. and make it fast, and provide hooks for encrypting it on the fly maybe? though you'd probably have to pay for a copy of POSIX.6 before you could earnestly start designing such a beast. -- "I'm more differed from than differing" -- Arthur Dent