Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@nas.nasa.gov> writes:

> > I'm sure the list could go on, and on, and ...
> 
> That's why the extra space has a flags field. :-) If you want to use that
> 96-bytes of space for something else, then you have space to indicate that
> use. All you have to do is just tell ffs to not allow storing of opaque
> data on top of it. No big loss as I don't see as symlinks are supposed to
> just point somewhere else - they aren't real files. :-)
> 
> Take care,
> 
> Bill

Flags field or not, this idea is simply impoverished. It might suit
whatever application you are using it for *perfectly*, but it's a hack
and not a solution where other problem domains are considered. If you
want this type of feature I strongly suggest a type:value chain
system. If you are concerned about the amount of work involved, limit
the number of tuples *by imlementation* (not design, and not api) to
whatever can fit inside an expanded inode, as this leaves you with the
ability to transparently change implementation specifics without
modifying the again modifying the api, or the inode data structure size.

Cheers,
Julian.