[GFS-WG] RNS specification

[Christopher Jordan]

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Andre,

I don't believe the RNS specification ever made any specific  
provision for symbolic links, and there are no plans to provide  
special handling of "symbolic links", but I know that in previous  
versions of the draft spec, it was explicitly mentioned as an analogy  
for an RNS entry that pointed to another RNS entry.

Basically, an RNS entry is just a human-readable name, organized in a  
hierarchy of other human-readable names, which are associated with a  
WS-Address-compliant address (which can be a direct reference to a  
data resource or a reference to an abstract name, allowing for the  
three-tier naming scheme used in OGSA). This can include a reference  
to another entry in the same RNS namespace, which would be analogous  
to a symbolic link in a standard Unix filesystem, or it could be a  
reference to an EPR which is also referenced by another RNS entry,  
analogous to a "hard link".

It's possible that the GFS profile for RNS will include operations to  
create these kinds of RNS entries, to provide analogous functionality  
to other Unix filesystems; I'd be interested to know how much  
interest there is in this.

I hope this clarifies things for you, at least WRT how RNS  
implementations can function to provide symbolic link-like  
functionality.

Thanks.

On Oct 5, 2006, at 1:57 AM, Andre Merzky wrote:

> Hi GFS-WG,
>
> I seem to remember that the RNS specification did, at some
> point in the past, mention symbolic links.  The last draft
> (sent by Osamu on Sep 21st) does not mention links anywhere.
>
> Does my memory trick me? (very likely)
>
> Is there any intention to introduce special handling of
> symbolic links in RNS, or in GFS?
>
> Thanks, best regards,
>
>   Andre.
>
> -- 
> "So much time, so little to do..."  -- Garfield
> --
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>   gfs-wg at ogf.org
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>

Chris Jordan
Data Reliability Manager
San Diego Supercomputer Center
ctjordan at sdsc.edu
858.534.8347

"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it  
would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat,  
and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of  
silence." - George Eliot




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