Re: [PATCH] Added basic file system watching support.

[Michael Albinus]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> In inotify-rm-watch I couldn't add similar lines, because file_name is
>> unknown. My proposal is either to add file_name as first argument of
>> inotify-rm-watch, or to declare WATCH-DESCRIPTOR as a cons cell, which
>> car is always the file name.
>
> IMO, this design is wrong.  Tramp is just one more back-end for this
> feature, in addition to two others: inotify and w32notify.  So I think
> Tramp handlers should be called from a higher-level code, one that
> calls whichever back-end is appropriate.  Otherwise, we will need to
> implement the Tramp support twice, in 2 different sets of primitives.

Maybe. But this would require a common understanding of the API between
all involved backends.

Honestly, I don't plan Tramp handlers for w32notify-add-watch and
w32notify-rm-watch. I wouldn't know how to implement, neither if the
local host runs MS Windows, nor if the remote host runs MS Windows. At
least this thread does not exist :-)

For me, it would be sufficient to regard Tramp handlers as an extension
to inotify-add-watch and inotify-rm-watch, and not as a third backend in
parallel to two others.

> IOW, this feature is not really ready for Tramp-ization, or for
> user-land in general.  Stefan wanted people to experiment with this
> and gather experience, before we know enough to discuss how to make it
> user- and Lisp-friendly.

It was never planned for Tramp; as I said I'm curious. And we got what
Stefan has asked for: "people to experiment with this and gather
experience".

Best regards, Michael.