[Vm-dev] [Pharo-dev] FileSystem file attributes and #isSymlink patch
Alistair Grant
akgrant0710 at gmail.com
Tue Jul 25 15:21:16 UTC 2017
Hi David,
Thanks very much for your follow-up.
On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 07:28:07PM -0400, David T. Lewis wrote:
>
> Hi Alistair,
>
> I am copying this to vm-dev for follow up on the plugin, see below.
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 08:09:10AM +0000, Alistair Grant wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I'm nearly ready to submit a patch that started with the goal of being
> > able to retrieve the device id and fixing FileReference>>isSymlink and
> > also follows Esteban's suggestion of splitting out file existence and
> > other attributes (which provides a performace gain). See the summary
> > below for a description of the changes.
> >
> > The patch involves adding a new VM plugin, FileAttriubutesPlugin. To
> > minimise the chance of any problems along the way I'd like to submit the
> > patch in three steps:
> >
> > 1. Add the VM plugin (FileAttributesPlugin)
> > 2. Add the code the image that allows testing of the code and plugin,
> > but doesn't do any integration with existing functionality.
> > This will allow the plugin to be tested by a few volunteers
> > (hopefully).
> > 3. Add the patches that make the switch over to the new implementation.
> >
>
> I think you are handling this in exactly the right way, kudos.
>
> >
> > Can someone point me to how to submit a new VM plugin? The code is
> > contained in a subclass of InterpreterPlugin.
>
> Following up on the vm-dev list: If your plugin is available in a Monticello
> repository, that would be great because VM builders can easily include it
> and try it out. Any repository would be fine for starters, or if you have
> an account on squeaksource.com I can add you as developer in the somewhat
> loosely-related DirectoryPlugin project if that is of any help. Whatever is
> convenient for you.
smalltalkhub.com is probably easiest for me, thanks.
> Your plugin sounds like something that would be stable and require little
> maintenance over time, so it might make sense to pull it directly into
> the VMMaker package. We can discuss that vm-dev list.
I'm hoping this will become a core part of Pharo, so ultimately it
should live with the other Pharo core plugins like FilePlugin (assuming
it is accepted, of course).
> Once your plugin code is available, it should be straighforward to start
> including it in the various VM build configurations.
Great, thanks. build.linux32x86/pharo.cog.spur is probably the best
place to start.
I should be able to post the plugin to smalltalkhub.com quite
quickly. The smalltalk code will take me a while to repackage as I'll
want to test it fairly carefully, and my time is very scattered (this is
my hobby, but lots of family demands :-)).
As a side effect, once this has been fully integrated it will be
possible to get rid of at least some of the "#if Pharo" type
conditionals in the FilePlugin, allowing the code to be tidied up.
I'll post another reply once I've got the plugin code in
smalltalkhub.com.
Thanks again,
Alistair
> Dave
>
>
> >
> > I've been using this as my production environment for about 2 months now
> > on a linux 32 bit VM. Running the full test suite results in the same
> > set of test failing before and after applying the patch.
> >
> > I've also ran file related tests on linux 64 bit (run the Test Runner,
> > select all packages with "file" as part of the name and run all the
> > available tests) and the full test suite on Windows 32 bit.
> >
> > The summary is:
> >
> > 1. #isSymlink now works properly on Linux (and it should also work on
> > MacOS and BSD).
> > 2. The list of file attributes available from FileReference now is:
> > #accessTime (new)
> > #changeTime (new)
> > #creationTime
> > #deviceId (new)
> > #exists
> > #gid (new)
> > #inode (new)
> > #isBlock (new)
> > #isCharacter (new)
> > #isDirectory
> > #isExecutable (new)
> > #isFIFO (new)
> > #isFile
> > #isReadable
> > #isRegular (new)
> > #isSocket (new)
> > #isSymlink (works)
> > #isWritable
> > #modificationTime
> > #numberOfHardLinks (new)
> > #permissions
> > #size
> > #targetFile (new)
> > #uid (new)
> > 3. FileReference>>exists is faster than before (well, at least on my
> > linux laptop). This is useful as it is called quite often.
> > 4. It is possible to retrieve symbolic link attributes, e.g. all the
> > attributes listed above plus the target path.
> >
> >
> > Given how similar MacOS and BSD are to linux, I assume that this will
> > all work without problem on those platforms (but it obviously needs to
> > be tested).
> >
> > As implied above, the changes are all backward compatible (except
> > the broken #isSymlink), although a couple deserve mention:
> >
> > 1. Obviously #isSymlink now answers correctly (previously it would only
> > answer correctly for a broken link).
> > 2. Requesting any of the attributes listed above (except #isSymlink)
> > will return the value of the target path. If the FileReference is to a
> > broken symbolic link, it will return the attributes of the symbolic
> > link (keeping existing behaviour).
> > 3. The attributes of a symbolic link can be retrieved using
> > FileReference>>symlinkAttributes.
> >
> > Overall, performance is slightly better than before. Code that
> > needs to access multiple attributes and is written to take advantage of
> > the new behaviour will see significant performance improvements.
> >
> >
> > If you've got this far and forgotten the original question :-)
> >
> > Can someone point me to how to submit a new VM plugin?
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Alistair
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