Re: [PATCH] POSIX ACL support

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> The following patch adds support for preserving POSIX ACL entries of
>> files, which at the moment are lost when Emacs saves a buffer (unless
>> `backup-by-copying' is set).
> Thanks for writing this. It is definitely needed IMO.
>> -(defun backup-buffer-copy (from-name to-name modes context)
>> +(defun backup-buffer-copy (from-name to-name modes context acl)
> [and several other such]
> This is really a general comment, not an issue with your patch in
> particular, so don't let it distract. I just wonder if it is possible to
> find a different way to pass this information around, so that we don't
> need to have an ever increasing list of function arguments and return
> values (preserve-this, preserve-that, preserve-the-other, etc...).
> I don't have a good suggestion for how to do that.
> (I have a vague memory this was mentioned when SELinux was added.)

Yes, that's a problem.  We should consolidate `modes', `context', and
`acl' into a `metadata' argument.


        Stefan