Proposing the doc-filesystem (was: Documentation formats)

[Winfried Truemper <winni@xpilot.org>]

There is an experimental kernel-module called "user-fs" which implements
a virtual filesystem using "output" from programs. It's main use is the
ftp-fs, a "filesystem-interface" to ftp:

        /ftp/sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming

appears as a local directory but it's empty until you enter it and request
a file or a listing. The contents are then fetched from 
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming (of course) and cached for a
while. It's really a nice toy.

We could use the same technique to provide the documentation in every
format. The rough idea:

        /doc/

Becomes a virtual-filesystem which converts every file into the requested
format. So if a user wants to read "/doc/info/gcc.info-2.html" the
filesystem creates it using <insert your favourite tool here> from the
original file "/usr/info/gcc.info-2.gz" on the fly.
This has several advantages:

     (0) We do not break any standard (beside the FHS). :-)

     (1) The documents could be stored in compressed form to save
         disk space.
     (2) No need for cgi
     (3) No wasting of space by storing the same document in several
         formats.
     (4) Not only the user is not forced to use a particular www-browser,
         he is not forced to use it at all! He can also use "man" (Hi
         Kai!) to browse through html- or info-files (provided there
         is a conversion tool).

The disadvantage is that we need somebody to hack up the "user-fs" and to
create a layout for "/doc". I'm no kernel freak but the examples that are
shipped with it should provide a good starting point. It's available from 

        ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/userfs


Hoping everyone is satisfied
-Winfried



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