Hi !

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After hitting my head so many times against the wall of limitations of
the CODA kernel module interface:
Is there any interest in redesigning and re-writing the kernel
module+userspace interface ?

What's my problem:
Primary problem is that CODA kernel interface doesn't provide a way to
read small _parts_ of "remote" files. For example running a script which
uses /usr/bin/file to determinate the datatype of a file will trigger
the download of the _complete_ file - even if only the first two bytes
are required.
Many modern desktop environments (like CDE) use datatyping by file
contents (_good_ idea) instead of filename-based datatyping (like done
in M$ operating systems - a very _bad_ idea) - which results in the same
problem noted above. 
Think about a ftp site (using CODA kernel-module and podfuk+ftpfs) which
has large INDEX files (~60MB). File manager likes to determinate the
datatype - reads the first two bytes - but triggers the download of
60MB. 
Quite efficient, isn't it ? ;-(((

(Possible) solution:
Allow random-access (read/write etc.) to remote files.
What about an interface to the SYSV-VFS layer, e.g. moving more stuff
from kernel to userspace layer ?

Comments ?

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Bye,
Roland

-- 
  __ .  . __
 (o.\ \/ /.o) Roland.Mainz_at_informatik.med.uni-giessen.de
  \__\/\/__/  gisburn_at_informatik.med.uni-giessen.de
  /O /==\ O\  MPEG specialist, C&&JAVA&&Sun&&Unix programmer
 (;O/ \/ \O;) TEL +49 641 99-13193 FAX +49 641 99-41359