Re: casefile implementation

[Ben Pfaff]

John Darrington <address@hidden> writes:

> I wondered if it wouldn't be possible to use the mmap system call to 
> greatly simplify the implementation of casefile.c

I don't want to depend on mmap.  It's not available everywhere,
and even where it is it might not work on every file system.

The GNU coding standards address this:

    Don't assume that `mmap' either works on all files or fails for all
    files.  It may work on some files and fail on others.

       The proper way to use `mmap' is to try it on the specific file for
    which you want to use it--and if `mmap' doesn't work, fall back on
    doing the job in another way using `read' and `write'.

       The reason this precaution is needed is that the GNU kernel (the
    HURD) provides a user-extensible file system, in which there can be many
    different kinds of "ordinary files."  Many of them support `mmap', but
    some do not.  It is important to make programs handle all these kinds
    of files.
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