Is this a Nautilus bug?

Lee Braiden lee_b at digitalunleashed.com
Tue Aug 9 09:15:58 UTC 2005


On Tuesday 09 August 2005 09:53, Alf-Ivar Holm wrote:
> How about using both approaches, and if file extension doesn't match
> file(1) output, give a warning, but still along with some options?

That's actually how I thought Nautilus *did* work.  I'm sure I remember 
hearing about file magic in some version of GNOME.  Maybe that was back in 
gmc (gnome midnight commander) days...

I think metadata is the only real long-term solution, but that could certainly 
be acquired through different means.  It would be a bit of work, but I think 
it's entirely possible:

* Files downloaded from the web have mimetype data as part of the HTTP 
protocol, so that could be stored directly in the downloaded file.
* Programs writing data would know their mimetype and could easily write the 
metadata too.
* Files installed from packages could have their metadata included in the 
package info.
* Other files could have their mimetype filled in from the extension, or by 
file(1)
* As a last resort, prompting once for a mimetype when the file is first used 
would resolve any ambiguity, and the user would never need to be asked again.

The advantages of this would be that:

a) File types would be flexible, and known without relying on filenames.  
Personal Files could be renamed at will by users, without breaking things.
b) Apache and all the other programs that have separate mimetype tables could 
rely on a unified system call instead.
c) The system would be more reliable, and faster, since every filesystem 
program wouldn't be re-guessing what can be known once and for all.
d) Desktop search really is becoming an important issue for usability.  
Metadata will be required for most things anyway, and so will file type info.  
So it makes sense to group them together into a metadata system.
e) CD-writing and similar apps would be much simpler, since end-users wouldn't 
have to choose between equally-meaningless image formats.
e) Probably other things I can't think of right now :)


-- 
Lee Braiden
http://www.DigitalUnleashed.com
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