From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S269795AbUH0Adx (ORCPT ); Thu, 26 Aug 2004 20:33:53 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S269794AbUH0Aax (ORCPT ); Thu, 26 Aug 2004 20:30:53 -0400 Received: from mail-relay-2.tiscali.it ([213.205.33.42]:32401 "EHLO mail-relay-2.tiscali.it") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S269813AbUH0AUM (ORCPT ); Thu, 26 Aug 2004 20:20:12 -0400 Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 02:18:51 +0200 From: Andrea Arcangeli To: Hans Reiser Cc: Christophe Saout , viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk, Linus Torvalds , Christoph Hellwig , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Alexander Lyamin aka FLX , ReiserFS List Subject: Re: silent semantic changes with reiser4 Message-ID: <20040827001851.GA7640@nocona.random> References: <20040824202521.GA26705@lst.de> <412CEE38.1080707@namesys.com> <20040825200859.GA16345@lst.de> <20040825204240.GI21964@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> <1093467601.9749.14.camel@leto.cs.pocnet.net> <20040825225933.GD5618@nocona.random> <412DA0B5.3030301@namesys.com> <20040826112818.GL5618@nocona.random> <412E77F3.1090206@namesys.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <412E77F3.1090206@namesys.com> X-GPG-Key: 1024D/68B9CB43 13D9 8355 295F 4823 7C49 C012 DFA1 686E 68B9 CB43 X-PGP-Key: 1024R/CB4660B9 CC A0 71 81 F4 A0 63 AC C0 4B 81 1D 8C 15 C8 E5 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 04:53:23PM -0700, Hans Reiser wrote: > Think of it as being like VFS, where you can plugin new filesystems. > Only in this case, you can plugin new kinds of files, and everything you > need to implement those new kinds of files (items, nodes, keys, > processing before flushing to disk, etc.) also gets implemented as a > plugin. It is an Uber-VFS. I'm just confused by the naming, following your comparison with it being like VFS, I don't call reiser4 a "plugin" of the VFS. The vfs offers an interface for the fs to register into it. Like the scsi highlevel code also offers an interface for the lowlevel driver to register into it, but we don't call scsi lowlevel drivers "plugins". the ext3 directory code calling ext3_getblk would be also a plugin in your vocabulary, and the ext3_getblk call would be plugin-hook. > I am not concerned about ram in this design, I want nifty new kinds of > files easy crafted over a weekend by sysadmins working in Canada and > Guatemala. Software engineering cost is what matters to me ( I turned > 40, so I think different now....;-) ) Adding proper layering and abstractions is sure a good thing, if you can turn the street into a crowd of reiser4 kernel hackers because your API is so clean that any sysadmin can craft new kind of files over the weekend you're welcome to go ahead ;). (I just doubt the "plugin" terminology can make a difference by the time people start scratching their head into the code, the design and the clean abstraction of the code will make a difference instead)