[AFS3-std] Re: rpc refresh: FetchDirectory: discussion only

[Andrew Deason]

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:22:49 -0400
Jeffrey Hutzelman <jhutz@cmu.edu> wrote:

> --On Thursday, September 10, 2009 07:00:34 PM -0400 "Matt W.
> Benjamin" <matt@linuxbox.com> wrote:
> 
> > 5. directory entries cannot be looked up, as server doesn't know
> > applicable normalization rules
> 
> I'm not sure I'd go quite that far (and I'm pretty sure I was the one
> who made this argument).  I expect a lookup operation will _usually_
> not be as useful as doing the lookup on the client, for this reason
> and also due to performance concerns.  But occasionally it might, so
> I wouldn't completely rule out the option of a lookup operation.

Specifically, I was fighting for having one since it allows the ability
to grant access to a directory without granting the listing of the
parent directory (allowing 'hidden' directories, like directories in
traditional unix filesystems with mode XX1).

It's also theoretically faster for a vast minority of cases, but we
probably don't care about that.

I don't have enough experience with encoding issues to convincingly
debate that aspect, but intuitively, I'd thought we'd use the same rules
as the server uses for e.g. CreateFile/MakeDir EEXIST detection.

That, or have the client supply a either UTF name normalized to some
predefined normalization (if the client knows it is looking for a UTF
name), OR a string that the server should perform a straight bit
comparison on. If that makes any sense.

-- 
Andrew Deason
adeason@sinenomine.net