support for ext-attrs on non-supporting FS's

[Matt McCutchen]

On Mon, 2009-08-24 at 09:43 -0700, Linda A. Walsh wrote:
> Maybe rsync could support extattrs on non-supporting fs's with a 
> .<fn>.xattr  file stored
> at the same place as the <fn>:
>     If a user used a switch to emulate 'xattrs', then on a fs that 
> didn't support real .xattrs one
> could still ACL and other .xattr info.  If a user ran rsync w/o that 
> switch such files
> would be treated as 'normal files' -- allowing copying as normal files 
> between other
> targets, but allowing ACL restoration on some final target by re using 
> the --emulate
> switch, where it would detect the files on the source, and support on a 
> target, and
> set ACL's appropriately?
> 
> Just a thought....?  Doable or reasonable?

I think the xattr emulation would be more appropriately done in a
virtual filesystem to be layered over the real one (e.g., with FUSE)
than in rsync.

-- 
Matt