Specification for per directory settings

[Adrien BUSTANY]

Patryk Zawadzki a écrit :
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 12:22 AM, Adrien BUSTANY <madcat at mymadcat.com> wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>> this is my first post to the list, so hello everyone !
>> I've been lately developping an extension for a file manager which uses
>> emblems on folders to mark their relation with a project. I searched for
>> a standard for per directory settings but didn't find one. My problem is
>> with emblems, but the same goes for custom icons, custom sorting, or
>> even localized names etc.
>> I think the freedesktop world could really benefit from a standard
>> addressing this concern, if it's well thought of course :-)
>> This mail is hence a call for brainstorming, here are a few starting
>> points :
>> - For each folder that has custom settings, store a hidden file with the
>> settings inside. That's what Dolphin, and the Finder on Mac OS X does.
>> - Store all the custom settings in a centralized file, most likely in
>> the home user directory (possibly in .config). I guess that what
>> Nautilus does for emblems, although that needs confirmation.
>>
>> What do you guys think about that ? Do you have a better answer ? Am I
>> posting to the right list ? :-)
>>     
>
> Store it in extended attributes and fall back to hidden file when
> moving to media that does not support them (archive, teh internets,
> fat) and reinstantiate the attributes when moving back (I believe
> that's what OSX does in most of the cases and as a bonus it saves you
> a bunch of stats).
>
>   

I like the extended attributes too, they're clearly the cleanest way to 
store that information. In the case where extended attributes are not 
available, we cannot always use a hidden file in the folder, I'm 
thinking for example of a read only volume. In that case I think Dolphin 
fall backs to a central setting file, though I don't know the details.

Cheers
Adrien

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