Re: ext4 features

[Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu]

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:27:35 EDT, Ric Wheeler said:

> The key is to keep the signature/checksum with the file - tripwire and 
> backup programs could do this (and even store it their own extended 
> attribute), but I think that it is more generically useful than that. 

Backup programs want it stored with the file.  Tripwire wants it stored
as far away from the file as possible.  Remember - for Tripwire, we *don't*
want the "current maintained value", we want "the snapshotted value from
a known good state".

If the filesystem stored a "guaranteed trustable current hash", Tripwire
*could* use it to compare against its database rather than having to re-read
the file and recompute it.  Unfortunately, a useful trustable hash is
basically incompatible with any sort of incremental updating (except for
the special case of appending to the file).

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