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#1 2013-02-09 12:40:12

drtebi
Member
Registered: 2013-02-09
Posts: 126

Which file system for lots of extended attribute use in program?

Hello,

I would like to know if anybody has recommendations in regards to what file system would be a good choice for extended attributes.

The idea is to create a GUI application that uses extended attributes exclusively for image metadata. This is going to be more of an experiment... but hopefully will turn into a useful image browser with saved searches etc.

My concerns about the file system are:

1) backup solutions
2) limit in attribute name sizes
3) limit in value sizes
4) expected longevity of file system, e.g. will support for it continue in future kernels
5) speed
6) data integrity

I have researched a bit, but information is somewhat scarce. JFS appears to be a good candidate, but it is unclear to me what the 255 byte limit for names of attributes means (is that per attribute name, or for the sum of all attribute names?).

Any pointers or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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#2 2013-03-03 00:07:45

scorpyn
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 66

Re: Which file system for lots of extended attribute use in program?

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#3 2013-03-03 00:18:17

drcouzelis
Member
From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
Website

Re: Which file system for lots of extended attribute use in program?

scorpyn wrote:

BFS?

Aw man, you took my answer!

Yes, the Be File System was designed with extened attributes. I use them when I program in the Haiku operating system. It's kind of neat, for example, the native Haiku email application uses extended attributes to store things like subject and sender, so the default "mail viewer" is just a file manager window. wink

...BUUUT you were probably looking for something for Linux... hmm

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#4 2013-03-03 01:45:34

drtebi
Member
Registered: 2013-02-09
Posts: 126

Re: Which file system for lots of extended attribute use in program?

Thanks for the reply.

BFS, or also known as BeFS, was actually one of the inspirations for my project. Some time around 2000 or so I had a computer running the BeOS Developer version--it was great, especially for email. And the more I learned about the BeFS filesystem, the more I liked it. I often wonder why today not more applications are taking advantage of metadata at the file system level.

Anyway, as far as I can see, the BeFS driver for linux is not under active development anymore; therefore I don't know if that would be a great choice.

I think once I continue on the project, I will see how far I get with a more "standard" file system like ext4, although I am afraid I may run out of space for metadata at some point. It is not exactly clear from the documentation what the limits are.

We shall see what happens wink

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