Re: Journalling filesystems

[Ognyan Kulev]

Bas Wijnen wrote:
> While we're talking about "what really should be supported", I have an other
> idea.  I went to a lecture about smartcard filesystems some time ago and it
> was partly about journalling filesystems.  I think they should be implemented
> in the Hurd.

I'm implementing ext3 server for the Hurd.  I thought a bit about the 
things you talk about.  More valueable would be if we have "transaction 
server", like Distributed Transaction Coordinator in the other OS.  This 
would allow to span transaction to many filesystems, and even 
non-filesystem objects.  Transaction server gives transaction handles 
and clients can add other objects/ports to the transaction.  Finally, 
transaction commits or aborts and transaction server uses some protocol 
to synchronize the committing or aborting of the various objects (object 
operations).

But we are far away from all that, and IMHO we should first finish 
porting to L4 before dealing with such stuff.

It's nice to dream, but most people will just ask: "Can I use Mozilla to 
browse and mail?".

Regards,
ogi