RE: mod_vfsindex -- need some review

[Martin Kutschker <Ma...@blackbox.net>]

Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 20:20:05 +0100
To: <de...@httpd.apache.org>,
"'Justin Erenkrantz'" <je...@apache.org>
From: "Mladen Turk" <mt...@mappingsoft.com>

> I've started the project on sourceforge http://apvfs.sourceforge.net,
> based on my existing codebase.
> Since I need that right now (read yesterday), I don't have time to
> wait for 3.0 or some other future release that will eventualy
> implement that.
>
> I would like to hear other people suggestions on the proposed design
> concept, before it goes too far.

A (minor) point:
IMHO there should be no distinction between builtin and external modules. "Builtin" should only have the meaning of being shipped and compiled by default.

External authentication:
remote vfs' may require authentication. The API/architecture needs methods to provide them. Sounds like a though one.

Location:
I don't quite get the concept of it. Eg:

zip:/usr/local/archive.zip#index.html

The address part *seems* to be a local file path, but that's rather odd since the zip file could reside on any other vfs. Below my thoughts 

Alternate syntax 1:

zip:file:/usr/local/archive.zip#/index.html
zip:file:/usr/local/archive.zip#/some/dir/within/the/zip/index.html
zip:http://server.com/archive.zip#/index.html

Alternate syntax 2:

file:/usr/local/archive.zip#zip:index.html
http://server.com/archive.zip#zip:/some/dir/within/the/zip/index.html

Note: obvisously we need a way to escape the # in names.

But perhaps I am just misunderstandig you.

Nesting:
A nesting level of two is not enough - think of a gzipped tar (on any vfs) or - hey, a MIME message :-)

Still, an interesting concept.

Masi