Re: filename encoding (was: ISO-2022)

[Bram Moolenaar <Bram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Edmund Grimley Evans wrote:

> Bram Moolenaar <Bram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> 
> > True, if we are going to make changes, then let's introduce the file
> > system that has UTF-8 filenames only.  This just requires one flag that
> > indicates all file names on this filesystem are UTF-8.  Simple and
> > effective.
> 
> I'm not sure I understand the function of this flag. Why not just have
> mount options that let you specify whether to convert file names, and
> if so from which encoding to which encoding?

I suppose you can indeed implement it with a different mount option.  The idea
is that it's known that this filesystem uses UTF-8 file names, and the
relevant applications can get this info.  I suppose an option in the fstab
will work fine.  You can specify it independently from the type of file system
then (ufs/nfs/etc.).  You can then use getfsent() to obtain this info (that's
a BSD function, does Linux have it too?).

> Typically, for a local file system you would specify not to use
> conversion, and users would be free to use whatever encoding they want
> (including file names that contain "\377").

Hmm, would you specify "conversion" or "UTF-8"?  That depends on where the
conversion is done.  I haven't seen enough about this to suggest how this is
to be done.  There are contradicting requirements ("don't want to change all
applications" vs. "don't want conversion in the kernel"), thus this needs a
careful study.  I'm afraid I don't have enough time to seriously look into
this.  It would at least require finding out what existing implementations are
doing.  Hopefully somebody can collect all the arguments and propose a
solution.

-- 
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 ///  Bram Moolenaar -- Bram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -- http://www.moolenaar.net  \\\
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