What I think the original poster objects to is that this makes directory
files different from nondirectory files, without giving a good reason.
When I ls -l a text file or a program or... I see the number of useful
bytes in it, but when I ls -l a directory I see the number of *allocated*
bytes in it.
I suppose one could consider this a feature: it makes life difficult for
people who want to interpret directory files themselves instead of letting
the kernel do it. But this violates the bag-of-bytes model that is
supposedly sacred. Everything is a file, but some files are more
file-like than others.
-- Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer mwood@IUPUI.Edu A Brazil-nut is neatly packaged and tightly integrated. To turn it into food, you must crack and remove the shell. I find that I feel the same way about an increasing number of software products. *sigh*
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