dynamic file system (loopback) question

[David Wuertele <dave-gnus@xxxxxxxxx>]

Once upon a time I read that linux makes it easy to write a dynamic
filesystem such that you could create different file-based views of
existing services.

I have a disk full of *.flac audio files, and a database of
information about those *.flac files.  I have applications that want
to find tagged MP3 files on the disk.  I was thinking I could write an
adaptation layer using a dynamic filesystem that displayed a view of
the existing file hierarchy, but directory listings for *.flac get
converted to *.wav, and when a read is done of a *.flac file, the
dynamic FS transcodes it on the fly to *.mp3, using id3 tags from out
of the database as necessary.

I don't expect this system to have high performance, but I'd like to
give it a whack anyway.  Anyone know of a tool or tutorial that would
help me get started writing this layer?

Thanks,
Dave


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