[erichanson]

Nice to see folks rethinking files, as they're a scourge on the planet and an antiquated anti-pattern that has been holding back the industry pretty much since its inception. I don't know how anyone could take a look at /etc for example, and consider it anything but archaic. The adduser command is some 1130 lines long, and all it does is do CRUD on files, to name just one example. Then there are countless config files that just have to be edited by hand and happily accept syntax errors and logical errors. No modern system would tolerate this.

The root of the problem with files is that they lack an information model, beyond just a sequence of bytes. They are unopinionated to a fault. All files have structure. Even if that structure is a "non-structure" like "all these files are just a random sequence of meaningless bytes", then that is their structure. But this information isn't present in the system, nor can it be enforced or constrained when that is desirable.

To me, the obvious alternative is the database, aka "everything is a row". We have used the database (relational or otherwise, but mostly relation) to successfully model many many domains, and bring coherence and clarity to them. The cool thing about the relational database is that it's based on an underlying relational algebra. The syntax of data in an RDBMS is really just one manifestation of a deeper layer of structure that is syntax-free, and these abstract structures can be (and are) manifested in multiple coexisting syntaxes.

I'm exploring this pattern ("datafication", headshake) with Aquameta (http://aquameta.org/) and written a lot more about why file-centric is holding us back (http://blog.aquameta.com/intro-chpater2-filesystem/). Boot to PostgreSQL! :)

[agumonkey]

It's something that felt right in COBOL (and COBOL rarely feels right in this day and age). The file IO is record based at the core, so opening a file is basically a crude (npi) sql statement. It makes a lot of tiny things simpler IMO.

[gjs278]

files can be modified by any text editor in /etc it sounds like you are advocating for a system similar to the windows registry. it can easily corrupt and can’t be fixed by live cds or other operating systems that have the filesystem driver. it would be a massive step backwards.

[erichanson]

I agree the system you describe would be a massive step backwards. :)

No, I'm saying the OS needs an information model as a first-class citizen. But since you brought up data corruption: This hypothetical OS could also benefit from having transaction support up in application space -- to avoid data corruption -- something most "modern" programs don't even have, even though most file systems do.

To be fair, I do think the database needs a way to edit the contents of a field using your favorite text editor. But we've got a pgfs plugin that uses FUSE to make the database accessible as a filesystem as well.