[ bzflag-Feature Requests-997021 ] Tagging the cache directory

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Feature Requests item #997021, was opened at 2004-07-24 05:59
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by baford
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Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Bryan Ford (baford)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Tagging the cache directory

Initial Comment:
Dear BZFlag folks,

I happened to notice after playing BZFlag a few times
that it creates and maintains a cache directory of some
kind in the user's home directory (called
$(HOME)/.bzf/cache.linux on my system).  I wondered if
you'd be willing to support a trivial convention I'm
proposing by which cache-managing applications can tag
their caches in a standard and easily recognizable way,
so that backup and archival software can easily be
configured to exclude uselessly backing up such
regenerable data.  All BZFlag would have to do is write
into its cache directory a file named
".IsCacheDirectory" containing a specific fixed header
- probably a 5- or 10-line change to BZFlag.  The full
(but short) proposal is at:

http://www.brynosaurus.com/cachedir

...and the main discussion of the proposal is occurring
on the xdg-list on freedesktop.org.  The Mozilla folks
are already on board and receptive to the idea, which
is obviously critical since Mozilla caches probably
represent the bulk of uselessly backed-up cached
content on free desktop systems - but I'd of course
like to get the support of a wider variety of
applications.  Comments and discussion (privately or on
the xdg-list) are of course welcome.

Thanks very much!
Bryan

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>Comment By: Bryan Ford (baford)
Date: 2004-07-24 08:58

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Thanks for your quick response!  In answer to your question,
I've started maintaining an "application support status"
table on the proposal's main web page
(http://www.brynosaurus.com/cachedir).  I'm currently
focusing more on caching application support than on
backup/archiver tool support, since most archiver tools can
already take advantage of the convention from the get-go
with a little shell magic.  I'd appreciate pointers to any
other applications you know of that maintain caches but
aren't yet listed (I'm sure there are many).

Thanks again!
Bryan

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Comment By: Dave Rodgers (trepan)
Date: 2004-07-24 06:47

Message:
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the code is written (all eight or nine lines of it).
i'll see what the other devs think of it, and add
it if there is a positive consensus.

just curious, besides the mozilla folks, what
other cache generating apps do you have on
board? which archiving tools do you plan to use
this with?



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You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=353248&aid=997021&group_id=3248