Re: Software/HD ecology

[Anil <anil@null.invalid>]

Since unix routinely keeps a system-wide log on every file, I am
wondering if it would be desirable to extend that a little. 

Let us say a slightly enhanced version of "ls" could tell you not only
that a file is owned by root, wheel, etc., but also "belongs" to the
System or a user or a package like TeX or Emacs-29.9, and maybe even
its type within that package (src, doc, bin...). This requires one or
two more file attributes, but then you could check on an individual
file with "ls" or list all files belonging to a package with "find".

I think unix was conceptualized for small systems and programs, where a
user might know every file, where it came from, what it does. Either
you wrote it yourself or copied it from a friend. Those times are gone.
We have hundreds of thousands of files, know nothing about them, and
routinely install packages that bring thousands of files. The culture
and the tools have not evolved to deal with this reality and perhaps
need to. 

Shouldn't you be able to know just what a particular file named
"dtabttf" doing on your system? Similarly, while I am glad to know a
files's relationship to "wheel", it would also be useful to know it
belongs to emacs or TeX.

Anil Trivedi