Re: [nfsv4] xattr model in draft-naik-nfsv4-xattrs-01?

["J. Bruce Fields" <[e-mail]>]

On Sat, Oct 04, 2014 at 01:34:04PM -0700, Manoj Naik wrote:
> Christoph Hellwig <[e-mail]> wrote on 10/04/2014 09:17:50 AM:
> > On the GETXATTR side you conflate the LISTXATTR operation with GETXATTR,
> > as well as adding a new bulk get one that isn't present in any OS API
> > I know.  Both the argument and return structures are basically entirely
> > different for the different cases.
> 
> Agree that GETXATTR includes what is traditionally provided by listxattr()
> call. The idea was to limit the number of new operations provided to two -
> GETXATTR and SETXATTR. But if there is consensus, we don't have an issue
> with adding a LISTXATTR instead.
> 
> I think the ability to get/set all xattrs of a given file
> (getallxattrs/setallxattrs?) is useful, especially for backup/restore
> programs. Granted that there isn't an OS API that exposes this, but perhaps
> there should be one? I know some backup utilities that work directly with a
> filesystem API to do this. Especially over NFS, I believe a single RPC that
> accomplishes this may be desirable. I know somebody on the list or at the
> IETF meeting asked for this specifically too.

What does this allow you to do that you can't do by sending multiple
RPCs, or a single RPC with multiple getxattr/setxattr ops.

--b.