This is an example to exercise IPLD.
unixfs is a datastructure for representing unix filesystems. Think of it like "files on IPFS". It aims to support basic unix and posix files, as well as all the extended attributes (xattr, etc).
There are four defined object types
- (defined) a
Fileobject representing files (binary sequences) - (defined) a
Dirobject representing directories (name to object mappings) - (defined) an
Archiveobject representing bundled filesystems (tar, car, zip) - (defined) a
Metadataobject to add mimetypes and other metadata.
File objects represent unix/posix files, i.e. binary sequences. Like unix files, our File can be chunked into multiple subfiles. These are simply other File objects, which means a subfile is a File in its own right and can be accessed individually.
Files track:
filesa sequence of subfiles to be combined (for now, just concatenated)importerthe id of the importer used to construct theFilegraphbodyis the data inside the file
Dir objects represent unix/posix directories, i.e. maps of filename strings to files or directories. Like unix directories, our Dir can be sharded into multiple objects, to support efficient lookups in large directories. Other shards are simply other Dir objects, which means they are Dirs in their own right and can be accessed individually.
The names of Dir fields are the filenames of the objects. We aim to provide easy lookups.
Archive objects represent unix/posix filesystem archives, i.e. files which themselves contain a sub-filesystem, for example tar, car, and zip archives. Special handling of these sub-filesystems takes advantage of IPFS features like deduplication, integrity checking, fast random access, etc.
Metadata objects track attributes for files, directories, and archives that can be applied to all. For example: mime types, permissions, and other properties. This allows a simple attribute change to only create 1 more small object, instead of duplicating the whole file root.
(TODO: this is at odds with mode in the Dir)
See the example.yml document.
Some possilbe ways to traverse this datastructure using IPLD pathing:
And unixfs-aware file/dir pathing: