Re: [PATCH 0/6] Extended file stat system call

Steve French [off-list ref] wrote:

Would it be better to make the stable vs volatile inode number an attribute
of the volume  or something returned by the proposed xstat?

I'm not sure what you mean by a stable vs a volatile inode number.

quoted

Should things like the Windows Archive, Hidden and System bits be handled
through IOC flags, perhaps expanded to 64-bits?

Today I export these through an psuedo-xattr in cifs.ko, I am curious how
NTFS and FAT export these on linux.

NTFS: Not at all.

FAT: The hidden bit causes the filename to get a dot prepended (and nothing
else is noted).

quoted

Autofs, ntfs, btrfs, ...

Given the overlap in optional attributes between the network
protocol and local NTFS (and ReFS and to a lesser extent FAT)
I would expect cifs.ko and the ntfs implementations
info to map pretty closely.

Yep.  I wasn't going to do more filesystems till we'd finished arguing about
the basic arrangement of things in struct xstat.

quoted

Handle remote filesystems being offline and indicate this with
XSTAT_INFO_OFFLINE.

You already have support for an indicator for offline files (HSM),

HSM?

would XSTAT_INFO_OFFLINE be intended for the case
where the network session to the server is disconnected
(and in which you case the application does not want to reconnect)?

Hmmm...  Interesting question.  Both NTFS and CIFS have an offline attribute
(which is where I originally got this from) - but should I have a separate
indicator to indicate the client can't access a server over a network
(ie. we've gone to disconnected operation on this file)?  E.g. should there be
a XSTAT_INFO_DISCONNECTED too?

David