Locating/searching is one thing . And the actual storage of the
files is another thing .
Let's not mix those two things together.
A filesystem, hierachical or not, is nothing more than a simple database
with a specially crafted primary key. I guarantee you there is no tree
structure on your hard disk, it's an illusion presented to you by the
filesystem.
However it's hard to imagine how could someone backup the photos if
the files are stored "nobody knows where" and are accessible with
multiple search paths . This sounds like chaos .
The same way you backup any database, either in full or in part. It
takes no more effort to say "Give me all the data with a name starting
with /home/user/Pictures" than to say "Give me all the data tagged as
being a picture".
So you are thinking to have the metadata stored in a small database.
And integrate into the desktop the ability to manage the files with
labels , and search for them.
That's all a filesystem is, metadata stored in a small database with
pointers to disk locations.
So I would take this idea much more seriously if i had heard you guys
speaking of designing a new modern filesystem that adds support for
file metadata , file tagging , and advanced search capabilities .
Linux filesystems have supported extended attributes for file metadata
for years.
Michael Hall
mhall...@ubuntu.com
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