From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S271407AbTGXBJO (ORCPT ); Wed, 23 Jul 2003 21:09:14 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S271403AbTGXBJO (ORCPT ); Wed, 23 Jul 2003 21:09:14 -0400 Received: from remt22.cluster1.charter.net ([209.225.8.32]:19364 "EHLO remt22.cluster1.charter.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S271407AbTGXBJM (ORCPT ); Wed, 23 Jul 2003 21:09:12 -0400 Message-ID: <3F1F3555.2020109@mrs.umn.edu> Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 20:24:37 -0500 From: Grant Miner User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030718 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Mike Fedyk , linux kernel Subject: Re: directory inclusion in ext2/ext3 References: <20030723202225.F257B371@mendocino> <20030724005431.GJ1176@matchmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20030724005431.GJ1176@matchmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org I would also like this enhancement. Plan 9 is built around this feature, and it does it as an int argument 'flag' to mount, such that 'flag' may be (these are defined in a header): MREPL: Replace the old file by the new one. Henceforth, an evaluation of old will be translated to the new file. If they are directories (for mount, this condition is true by definition), old becomes a union directory consisting of one directory (the new file). MBEFORE: Both the old and new files must be directories. Add the constituent files of the new directory to the union directory at old so its contents appear first in the union. After an MBEFORE bind or mount, the new directory will be searched first when evaluating file names in the union directory. MAFTER: Like MBEFORE but the new directory goes at the end of the union. In addition, there is an MCREATE flag that can be OR'd with any of the above. When a /create /system call (see /open/(2)) attempts to create in a union directory, and the file does not exist, the elements of the union are searched in order until one is found with MCREATE set. The file is created in that directory; if that attempt fails, the /create /fails. ... (from http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/2/bind ) Further rationale can be provided if desired; just ask.