[geeks] Versioning FIlesystem

[David de Gruyl]

* on [03-05-22 14:27] KRM wrote:
>I don't know of any such filesystems under linux, but it sounds like a 
>useful concept.  How does this work under VMS?  How many versions does 
>it keep around?  How is it managed?

My experience on VMS was fleeting and painful, so I am not quite the 
best person to answer this, but I will anyway.  VMS would keep around a 
number of old versions of the same file (default was 10 or 100, I can't 
remember, and google is not helping).  If you edited the filename 
without modifiers, you would get the most recent version, but you could 
view or copy older versions if you added a modifier and the version 
number to the end of the file name.

The shell was built around this, with directory listings, and so on, 
giving you the default file, but allowing you to see the older versions 
if requested.

If you google for "vms versioning filesystem" you will see a number of 
linux projects -- none of which appear complete.  If you look for "unix" 
instead of VMS, you will see SCO's filesystem, which apparently has it 
natively built in.

Of course anything I just wrote may be entirely wrong.  It is from 
memory, and may just be how I wanted it to work.

David

-- 
David de Gruyl <david at bhaermandegruyl.org>
Princeton(ish), NJ