Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: tla get --hard-links available

[Andrea Arcangeli]

On Fri, Oct 03, 2003 at 06:03:44PM +0900, Miles Bader wrote:
> On Fri, 3 Oct 2003, Paul Hedderly wrote:
> > At least could get -l create a
> >   ++WARNING-HARD-LINKS-AT-WORK-HERE-SO-EDIT-AT-YOUR-PEERRRRRRILLLLL!!!!
> 
> Yeesh, people are so wimpy.
> 
> Maybe a ~/.arch-params/=training-wheels option...
> 
> [Anyway, I want someway to make --link the _default_ (for me).]

completely agreed. Maybe we should really make it an .arch-params option
instead of a get option at all to avoid to use -l without understanding
the conseguences?

It's really an user choice, it must not go into the archive, different
users works differently.

the pristine trees instead can work by default with hardlinks from
revlibs I think.

I believe the hardlink way is the technically correct way to go, it's
just that the fs lacks a bitflag in the inode on-disk format that tells
COW.  actually I've quite an idea about this matter, that is to
implement a _mount_ option, so you mount the fs with -o cow-hl and it
does what we need. I think hardlinks in general are much more useful COW
than non COW. I would sure mount my home as cow-hl. I think I can
implement that on the kernel side, that will be much faster and safer
than the fl-cow (and this why I don't have to debug the dynamic linker,
joking ;). the speed will be optimal the slowdown for normal operations
will be just a branch checking inode->i_nlinks > 1, the failure out of
disk space will be the brainer part.

thanks,

Andrea - If you prefer relying on open source software, check these links:
            rsync.kernel.org::pub/scm/linux/kernel/bkcvs/linux-2.[45]/
            http://www.cobite.com/cvsps/