Comments on: a lowercase manifesto http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/ a lowercase manifesto Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:31:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: David Nielsen http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-1 David Nielsen Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/#comment-1 That's just awesome, it always makes me happy to see such reports of FOSS succeses. <p/>However, while moving gnome-vfs to just using inotify is a cool thing for Linux I can see a few problems.<p/>One you pointed out yourself, this will only work properly if it's actually running a 2.6.14 or later kernel<p/>The other would be that it doesn't actually do anything if you are using an older kernel or not using Linux at all. <p/>If I understand this right, this would introduce for FreeBSD, etc. a second layer compared to Linux, namely gamin (admittingly this would be more like removing a layer on Linux than adding one on the other platforms). Wouldn't this be a possible cause of problems, instead of spotting all monitoring bugs in gamin, we now spot them in the inotify backend and in gamin. <p/>Don't get me wrong, I still think it's really cool. That’s just awesome, it always makes me happy to see such reports of FOSS succeses.

However, while moving gnome-vfs to just using inotify is a cool thing for Linux I can see a few problems.

One you pointed out yourself, this will only work properly if it’s actually running a 2.6.14 or later kernel

The other would be that it doesn’t actually do anything if you are using an older kernel or not using Linux at all.

If I understand this right, this would introduce for FreeBSD, etc. a second layer compared to Linux, namely gamin (admittingly this would be more like removing a layer on Linux than adding one on the other platforms). Wouldn’t this be a possible cause of problems, instead of spotting all monitoring bugs in gamin, we now spot them in the inotify backend and in gamin.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s really cool.

]]> By: ryan lortie http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-2 ryan lortie Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/#comment-2 as with all things, users of older versions of linux and other operating systems will continue to be supported through the old interfaces (ie: gamin).<p/>as for the reporting of bugs, it really just changes the demarcation point for what is considered a platform bug and what is a bug in gnome and who is responsible for fixing it.<p/>even now, with gamin in use on all platforms, each platform has its own in-kernel monitoring code (that feeds events to gamin). there could be different bugs in all of this different code.<p/>what would be -really- cool is if other platforms implemented native inotify or inotify-like interfaces for their kernels. as with all things, users of older versions of linux and other operating systems will continue to be supported through the old interfaces (ie: gamin).

as for the reporting of bugs, it really just changes the demarcation point for what is considered a platform bug and what is a bug in gnome and who is responsible for fixing it.

even now, with gamin in use on all platforms, each platform has its own in-kernel monitoring code (that feeds events to gamin). there could be different bugs in all of this different code.

what would be -really- cool is if other platforms implemented native inotify or inotify-like interfaces for their kernels.

]]> By: alexl http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-3 alexl Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/#comment-3 Uhm, john already has a patch for gnome-vfs inotify support at <a href="http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314281">http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314281</a> Uhm, john already has a patch for gnome-vfs inotify support at http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314281

]]> By: ryan lortie http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-4 ryan lortie Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/#comment-4 i know about this patch. christian has reservations about it and encouraged me to write another patch. i know about this patch. christian has reservations about it and encouraged me to write another patch.

]]> By: alexl http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-5 alexl Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/#comment-5 Please add a comment about this to the bug. Please add a comment about this to the bug.

]]> By: ryan lortie http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/comment-page-1/#comment-6 ryan lortie Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2005/09/01/a-lowercase-manifesto/#comment-6 i discussed it with john, personally (well, on irc) when we were talking about how to improve inotify. today i should be finished my implementation so i'll attach it to the bug then. i discussed it with john, personally (well, on irc) when we were talking about how to improve inotify. today i should be finished my implementation so i’ll attach it to the bug then.

]]>