Contents of /perl/trunk/README

Fuse version 0.06
=================

Fuse is combination of Linux kernel module and user space library which
enables you to write user-space filesystems. This module enables you to
write filesystems using perl.

Additional file-systems using Fuse module are released on CPAN using Fuse::
namespace. Currently that includes only Fuse::DBI which allows you to mount
database as file system, but there will be more.

This is a pre-production release.  It seems to work quite well.  In fact, I
can't find any problems with it whatsoever.  If you do, I want to know.


INSTALLATION

To install this module type the standard commands as root:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install


DEPENDENCIES

This module requires the FUSE C library and the FUSE kernel module.
See http://fuse.sourceforge.net/

If you intend to use FUSE in threaded mode, you need a version of Perl which
has been compiled with USE_ITHREADS.


COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This is contributed to the FUSE project by Mark Glines <mark@glines.org>,
and is therefore subject to the same license and copyright as FUSE itself.
Please see the AUTHORS and COPYING files from the FUSE distribution for
more information.


EXAMPLES

There are a few example scripts.  You can find them in the examples/
subdirectory.  These are:

* example.pl, a simple "Hello world" type of script

* loopback.pl, a filesystem loopback-device.  like fusexmp from
               the main FUSE dist, it simply recurses file operations
               into the real filesystem.  Unlike fusexmp, it only
               re-shares files under the /tmp/test directory.

* rmount.pl, an NFS-workalike which tunnels through SSH.  It requires
             an account on some ssh server (obviously), with public-key
             authentication enabled.  (if you have to type in a password,
             you don't have this.  man ssh_keygen.).  Copy rmount_remote.pl
             to your home directory on the remote machine, and create a
             subdir somewhere, and then run it like:
             ./rmount.pl host /remote/dir /local/dir

* rmount_remote.pl, a ripoff of loopback.pl meant to be used as a backend
                    for rmount.pl.


BUGS

Perl 5.8.7 does not support shared subroutine references.  Until this is
fixed, if you use threaded mode, you need to use symbolic references (i.e.
passing "main::cb" instead of \&cb).  This rules out closures, lexical
subs and that sort of thing, but it does seem to work.

The current test framework seems to work well, but the underlying mount/
unmount infrastructure is a crock.  I am not pleased with that code.  I
also wish there was a way to test without root permissions.

While most things work, I do still have a TODO list:
* "du -sb" reports a couple orders of magnitude too large a size.
* need to sort out cleaner mount semantics for the test framework
* figure out how to un-linuxcentrify the statfs tests
* test everything on other architectures and OS's
1	Fuse version 0.06
2	=================
3
4	Fuse is combination of Linux kernel module and user space library which
5	enables you to write user-space filesystems. This module enables you to
6	write filesystems using perl.
7
8	Additional file-systems using Fuse module are released on CPAN using Fuse::
9	namespace. Currently that includes only Fuse::DBI which allows you to mount
10	database as file system, but there will be more.
11
12	This is a pre-production release. It seems to work quite well. In fact, I
13	can't find any problems with it whatsoever. If you do, I want to know.
14
15
16	INSTALLATION
17
18	To install this module type the standard commands as root:
19
20	perl Makefile.PL
21	make
22	make test
23	make install
24
25
26	DEPENDENCIES
27
28	This module requires the FUSE C library and the FUSE kernel module.
29	See http://fuse.sourceforge.net/
30
31	If you intend to use FUSE in threaded mode, you need a version of Perl which
32	has been compiled with USE_ITHREADS.
33
34
35	COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE
36
37	This is contributed to the FUSE project by Mark Glines <mark@glines.org>,
38	and is therefore subject to the same license and copyright as FUSE itself.
39	Please see the AUTHORS and COPYING files from the FUSE distribution for
40	more information.
41
42
43	EXAMPLES
44
45	There are a few example scripts. You can find them in the examples/
46	subdirectory. These are:
47
48	* example.pl, a simple "Hello world" type of script
49
50	* loopback.pl, a filesystem loopback-device. like fusexmp from
51	the main FUSE dist, it simply recurses file operations
52	into the real filesystem. Unlike fusexmp, it only
53	re-shares files under the /tmp/test directory.
54
55	* rmount.pl, an NFS-workalike which tunnels through SSH. It requires
56	an account on some ssh server (obviously), with public-key
57	authentication enabled. (if you have to type in a password,
58	you don't have this. man ssh_keygen.). Copy rmount_remote.pl
59	to your home directory on the remote machine, and create a
60	subdir somewhere, and then run it like:
61	./rmount.pl host /remote/dir /local/dir
62
63	* rmount_remote.pl, a ripoff of loopback.pl meant to be used as a backend
64	for rmount.pl.
65
66
67	BUGS
68
69	Perl 5.8.7 does not support shared subroutine references. Until this is
70	fixed, if you use threaded mode, you need to use symbolic references (i.e.
71	passing "main::cb" instead of \&cb). This rules out closures, lexical
72	subs and that sort of thing, but it does seem to work.
73
74	The current test framework seems to work well, but the underlying mount/
75	unmount infrastructure is a crock. I am not pleased with that code. I
76	also wish there was a way to test without root permissions.
77
78	While most things work, I do still have a TODO list:
79	* "du -sb" reports a couple orders of magnitude too large a size.
80	* need to sort out cleaner mount semantics for the test framework
81	* figure out how to un-linuxcentrify the statfs tests
82	* test everything on other architectures and OS's