...making Linux just a little more fun!
[ In reference to "Fun with FUSE" in LG#134 ]
Wang Boqun [iostream at pku.edu.cn]
Sat, 6 Jan 2007 23:15:21 +0800
I think fuse is something like KDE's kio system.
For example, type ftp://ftp.iitm.ac.in in Konqueror's location bar,then Konqueror will open that ftp site as a filesystem, just like curlftpfs did.
Benjamin A. Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]
Sat, 6 Jan 2007 10:27:14 -0500
On Sat, Jan 06, 2007 at 11:15:21PM +0800, Wang Boqun wrote:
> I think fuse is something like KDE's kio system. > > For example, type ftp://ftp.iitm.ac.in in Konqueror's location bar,then > Konqueror will open that ftp site as a filesystem, just like curlftpfs did.
I don't have much experience with 'kio', but that's what FTP has always done - in Konqueror or pretty much any other browser. Whether you use Mozilla to log into your server (via e.g., ftp://name:password@my.server.foo), or a standard FTP client, you get access to the FTP structure as a filesystem.
Relatively recently, there's also been support for FISH - much the same as above, except with SSH (which I like quite a lot.) FUSE appears to me to simply extend the metaphor, allowing other things (Flickr, etc.) to be used as filesystems. I agree that it's not a 100% new, completely-from-scratch idea - but few things are. We're all standing on some very tall giants' shoulders.
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * https://LinuxGazette.NET *
Kapil Hari Paranjape [kapil at imsc.res.in]
Sat, 6 Jan 2007 15:36:58 -0800
Hello,
On Sat, 06 Jan 2007, Wang Boqun wrote:
> I think fuse is something like KDE's kio system.
On Sat, 06 Jan 2007, Benjamin A. Okopnik wrote:
> I agree that it's not a 100% new, > completely-from-scratch idea - but few things are. We're all standing on > some very tall giants' shoulders.
A hurd (couln't resist it!) of them.
However, I think that the querent has fused (resistance is useless
) two slightly different notions.
1. One is a library (kio or gnomevfs is essentially that) which provides applications that link with it with a unified "URL-style" namespace as a way of accessing different "file-like" objects. The "ange-ftp" elisp library was also similar.
2. The other is a kernel module like "fuse" or "lufs" adds a branch to the kernel's namespace to give "file-system-like" access to "file-like" objects. This extended namespace is seen by all programs run by the user.
You would use the first when you can ensure (by using KDE/GNOME/Emacs applications respectively) that all your applications will go through the same library.
You would use the second when you do not want to worry about this issue.
A preload library that intercepts all file-system calls by applications could transform 1 into something like 2 but I haven't seen one yet.
Regards,
Kapil.
P.S. The authors of these programs disagree somewhat Shakespeare and think that namespaces are important. Would we find the rose (let alone enjoy its smell) if it was not among the flowers?
--
Benjamin A. Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]
Mon, 8 Jan 2007 12:41:12 -0500
On Sat, Jan 06, 2007 at 03:36:58PM -0800, Kapil Hari Paranjape wrote:
> > P.S. The authors of these programs disagree somewhat Shakespeare and > think that namespaces are important. > Would we find the rose (let alone enjoy its smell) if it was not > among the flowers?
If it looked like a top-quality steak, smelled like one, and tasted like
one, I don't know that I'd find any reason to complain...
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * https://LinuxGazette.NET *