Re: [Gnu-arch-users] extended attributes

[Charles Duffy]

On Sun, 2004-01-04 at 21:08, Brian May wrote:
> Has anybody considered using extended attributes to store arch ids?

Yes, it's been considered -- and the reasons why it was decided to be a
Bad Idea can be found via searching the archives of this list.

To summarize my own understanding, though: It's a question of
durability. A tag embedded in the file's contents won't be lost when
someone opens it in $ARBITRARY_EDITOR and saves it under a new name (to
later rename the new file over the old one), won't be lost when someone
moves a file temporarily onto a filesystem without extended attribute
support, won't be lost when files are moved between systems via
$ARBITRARY_REMOTE_COPY_PROTOCOL, etc.