On September 3, 1998 at 13:41, Christopher Lindsey wrote:
However, I wonder about the MD5 method. Without knowing anything
about MD5, could it work with 8.3 filenames? I buid my archives on a
DOS box, so am constrained to that format.
...
I'm embarassed to admit that it doesn't fall into 8.3 filename
scheme. It's probably one of my greatest faults when it comes
to things like this -- I tend to only think of my existing
configuration and have a hard time remembering that others have
different limitations. Or maybe it's just that I'm trying to
block out those painful memories of short filenames. :)
I think when you need to do more advanced things, you should use
a file system that can support you needs. I find the 8.3 convention
very limiting and have not bothered with the extra burden to
support it in some of my work (in MHonArc, the docs require long
filenames).
Even Windows95 supports long filenames (in a bastardized way).
AFAICS, mhonarc.db is wiped when the archives are rebuilt ... and all
that would be needed is to ensure that filename.db is not wiped on a
rebuild, and its data reused. That way, we could retain the current
flexibility of filename format (which has other advantages, such as
being reasonably transparent) and add permanency.
This sounds more flexible. I worry about the removal of filename.db,
but I guess I could just be more careful. :)
The .db file will need to search in both directions -- it needs to
check and see if a filename has already been used and see if a
filename exists for a Message-Id:/md5sum pair.
Of course, I have no idea how hard it would be to implement this.
Guess it's time to start poking around the source again (or be
*really* nice to Earl :)
The main problem is the lack of abstraction of message filenames
in the current code base.
As for 8.3 support, I will not bother with it. If someone really
needs it, they will have to contribute it.
--ewh
----
Earl Hood | University of California: Irvine
ehood(_at_)medusa(_dot_)acs(_dot_)uci(_dot_)edu | Electronic
Loiterer
http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/ | Dabbler of SGML/WWW/Perl/MIME
