extended attribute standardization

[Jos van den Oever]

2006/11/19, Michael Burschik <Michael.Burschik at gmx.de>:
> Doesn't this require some kind of parser plugin for each and every type
> of file you intend to index? So instead of duplicating metadata, you are
> duplicating parsers? Or are you able to reuse the parser of the
> application that actually wrote the file? If you want to query a large
> number of files, then speed will be of considerable importance. Parsing
> complex files will certainly take a lot longer than reading extended
> attributes.
Yes it does require such parsers. But since many apps share file
formats this is less of a problem than it seems. Sharing code between
app and parser would be great but is not required.
If you want to store the extracted information, it's better to store
it in an index instead of extended attributes. Storing in an index
enables searching and allows for easier management of the data taken
up by the duplicated data.

> In an ideal world, the application would save the metadata in some
> easily accessible format and place whenever the file is modified. In
> this context, I would hesitate to call ID3 or EXIF tags easily
> accessible, for example.
There are plenty of libs to get that data out. Also the specs are rather simple.

Cheers,
Jos