Re: Proposal: restrict link(2)

bofh@snoopy.virtual.net.au
Thu, 19 Dec 96 22:59:11 +1000


>> > I agree with Mr. VanDevender on this point. I personally have never
>> >used Quota on Linux so maybe this idea is off, but how about adding the
>> >smarts to the quota distribution? If this affects us, then it probably
> [clip]
>> How about this:
>>
>> Quota's can calculate usage by dividing the disk file by the
>> user count. A 500 MB file can be shared by 5 people who each
>> "pay" 100 MB.

>Well, my initial reaction was "No way!", because this means that
>you affect somebody else (the file owner) when you do something
>(hard link their file with a name in your space), but in fact all you can do
>is help them (by lowering their quota) so - maybe!

The problem with this is that the Linux filing systems only support having
one user as the owner of the file. All hard links to the file are just
pointers to the Inode which contains the UID/GID of the file. This means that
to support this feature you advocate would require changing all filing systems!

>But this is still unsatisfactory aesthetically. From the point of view of
>beauty and simplicity it seems to me that the owner of the original is the one
>and only with it on his quota. To continue ...

That is the way it must be with current filing systems because they have no
way of storing any other data.

Russell Coker