Re: cpio-mode version 0.08

[Michael Albinus]

Tom Tromey <address@hidden> writes:

Hi Tom,

> It would be cool to have a cpio (and other archive type) file name
> handler, so that dired could just be reused rather than reimplemented.
> I realize this is possible with Tramp+GVFS now, but a pure elisp
> implementation would be even better.

... and harder. Tramp uses GVFS only as transition layer, because it
offers an API for libarchive(3). Switching to a direct access of the
libarchive C API would have advantages:

* Not bound to GVFS anymore, available on other platforms therefore.
* Not bound to the restrictions GVFS has taken to libarchive, like no
  support for writing into archives, missing proper file attributes, etc.

I have been lazy so far, because Tramp knows already the GVFS API, and
it was easy to add this support. But if there are heavy demands for
change, I could consider to switch to libarchive.

A pure Lisp implementation is wasted work, I believe. Look at the list
of file formats libarchive supports. (info "(tramp) Archive file names")

> Tom

Best regards, Michael.