[openbeos] Re: FS attributes

  • From: "Michael Phipps" <mphipps1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2002 18:07:33 -0500

>Jeremy Powers <jpowers@xxxxxxxxxx> Sun, 06 Jan 2002 14:39:01 -0800:
>> This is one thing that has bugged me about BeOS (I won't get
>> started on Windows...).  How hard is it to make the reported
>> file size include the size of all attributes?
>
>Not too hard.  The trouble is that some older software will break
>when the file size doesn't match the amount of data it reads.  But
>it could be done relatively easily in OpenTracker so that the GUI
>display of the file size includes attributes (but it would have to
>scan the attribute list for each file to add up the attribute sizes,
>which will make it slightly slower).

I think that there is a little more to it than this.
First off, some amount of attributes are stored in the directory structure
(the inode). 700 bytes or so. So many times, the attributes cost you *no*
file system space. That space is used, regardless. Secondly, if there are
more than 700 or so bytes, you would have to read in another block
to find out how big the file is. That would *dramatically* increase the 
time it takes to read a directory. Third, while attributes *CAN* be used 
to hold mountains of data, it is, IMHO, a bad idea. They aren't designed to 
do so well. 




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