-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi. Why each file can''t have also "expiration date/time" field, e.g., date/time when operation system will delete it automatically? This could be usable for backups, camera raw files, internet browser cached files, etc. - -- My PGP public key: http://yurichev.com/dennis.yurichev.asc -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAks7tdYACgkQ1YPmFmJG++MOagCgoPNjStfTxBDG5dx72AryOUV/ ZEIAoMdTAFZLyquepzhkPlmUahCvA1nD =to6Q -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On 30 December, 2009 - Dennis Yurichev sent me these 0,7K bytes:> Hi. > > Why each file can''t have also "expiration date/time" field, e.g., > date/time when operation system will delete it automatically? > This could be usable for backups, camera raw files, internet browser > cached files, etc.Using extended attributes + cron, you could provide the same service yourself and other similar (or not) things people would like to do without developers providing it for you in the fs.. Start at ''man fsattr'' /Tomas -- Tomas ?gren, stric at acc.umu.se, http://www.acc.umu.se/~stric/ |- Student at Computing Science, University of Ume? `- Sysadmin at {cs,acc}.umu.se
On Dec 30, 2009, at 12:41 PM, Tomas ?gren wrote:> On 30 December, 2009 - Dennis Yurichev sent me these 0,7K bytes: > >> Hi. >> >> Why each file can''t have also "expiration date/time" field, e.g., >> date/time when operation system will delete it automatically? >> This could be usable for backups, camera raw files, internet browser >> cached files, etc. > > Using extended attributes + cron, you could provide the same service > yourself and other similar (or not) things people would like to do > without developers providing it for you in the fs..I recall a long discussion about this sort of feature on usenet back in the late ''80s. The problem is that deletion is not a good result. For example, suppose you run a server for a year with a year expiry policy. Will it be able to reboot? Some files are only accessed at boot time, so how will you know what files are good candidates? If you know the files that are good candidates, then why not go ahead and deal with them directly? s/reboot/login/g IIRC, the consensus was that file age or last access time is not suitable for a deletion policy. However, it may be useful in a HSM system. I have limited experience with HSM systems in a large, multiuser environment, but I would not be happy to have the system go to tape to retrieve my .profile when I login. Which reminds me... whatever happened to the ADM project? http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+adm/ looks neglected to me... I won''t even begin to talk about snapshots... when you access a file in the snapshot, the file attributes are not changed, because the snapshot is read only. Dang it, I said I wouldn''t go there... -- richard
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Richard Elling wrote:>>> Why each file can''t have also "expiration date/time" field, e.g., >>> date/time when operation system will delete it automatically? >>> This could be usable for backups, camera raw files, internet browser >>> cached files, etc. >> >> Using extended attributes + cron, you could provide the same service >> yourself and other similar (or not) things people would like to do >> without developers providing it for you in the fs.. > > I recall a long discussion about this sort of feature on usenet back in > the late ''80s. The problem is that deletion is not a good result. For > example, suppose you run a server for a year with a year expiry > policy. Will it be able to reboot? Some files are only accessed at > boot time, so how will you know what files are good candidates?This attribute could be optional and to be set by user or software program running by user. - -- My PGP public key: http://yurichev.com/dennis.yurichev.asc -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAks7yIIACgkQ1YPmFmJG++NTdgCg0HtgWI6PRj+NSgLdy/d5in/X 2I8An0/lfdSlp/Ed6l8xhU5x/IJvxDiQ =HIe1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----