From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20120803171847.GA2720@polynum.com> References: <20120803171847.GA2720@polynum.com> Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 11:58:08 -0700 Message-ID: From: Skip Tavakkolian To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Re: [9fans] Multi-dimensional filesystem Topicbox-Message-UUID: a7b31a1e-ead7-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 if i understand correctly, this is one way it could be done (i think): * built a graph representing the structure * create a file server that given a graph and a root node, synthesizes a hierarchy, AND * on every walk to a node launches a copy of itself with the same graph but the new node as the root AND * mounts the newly launched copy of it self under that node (like exportfs)= . -Skip On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 10:18 AM, wrote: > Hello, > > This is mainly a theoretical question. > > While playing with the representation of mathematical definitions as a > file hierarchy (at dot you find a DESC or whatever named file with the > description, and the subdirs are simply more restrictive instances of > the thing; say : collection -> magma -> mono=EFde -> group etc.), it is > soon obvious that a filesystem is a one dimension thing: you only follow > one string. Multiple "parents" at the same level are not there. > > One could trick partly using hard or soft links. But with always the > same problem: who is dot-dot, in a case where multiple parents are here? > And multiple parents are not, to my knowledge, supported by kernel > filesystem code. Manipulating the namespace is not the same. > > Has someone ever played with the notion of a multidimensional > filesystem, where '/' is the origin, the nodes would be some > representation of (a, b, c,...) (even negatives perhaps), each node > having a name (user defined one by the way), and if > a node is, say (3, 0, 1,...) this means that it is to be found as the > third subdir of the (1, 0, 0,...) path etc., (In this scheme, if there > is no link (no path) from another notion, it is another dimension). > > Just for intellectual curiosity. > > Best, > -- > Thierry Laronde > http://www.kergis.com/ > Key fingerprint =3D 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C >