>>> What about the namei hack where you symlink /usr/bin -> /usr/@sys/bin
>>> and namei expands @sys into 'i386' or whatever?
>> Good luck... this has been proposed before without a warm reception.

jfw replies with a couple of paragraphs that express my position more
eloquently than I am likely to manage to, pointing out that it's bad
enough that / is reserved; reserving another character is truly the
first step along the path to the Fear and Loathing Filesystem.

If you must do something of the sort, create a new inode type, or
perhaps new directory entry type, that is essentially a symlink to a
place the kernel computes based on the stored link-to string.  If you
prefer, think of it as an ordinary symlink with a "please mangle the
link-to string" bit turned on.

> (I also happen to *use* filenames with a leading @; what happens if I
> want to make a symlink to one of them?)

So do I.  Often.

> [...] until namei() becomes this giant bloated macro preprocessor
> which also does filename lookups as a hobby.

Nicely put.

					der Mouse

			    mouse@collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu