>: >- implement a real userland fs layer that can cope with lseek(2) (and isn't
>: >  a hack layer over the NFS protocol as in sharity-light);
>:
>: i, for one, have always wondered why the portal file system didn't
>: hand back descriptors that could handle a seek.  that seems (to me, at
>: least) like a better thing to "fix".
>:
>: or maybe i'm just on crack again...  :)
>
>Well, if the target of the portal filename is a plain file, you'll get a
>seekable fd.

of course.  but if it's not...then things i tried (once) like

   diff -u /p/netbsd/basesrc/bin/cat/cat.c,1.1 /p/netbsd/basesrc/bin/cat/cat.c

don't work too goodly.

>If you're curious, look at the guts of the portal daemon.  Portalfs isn't a
>real fs in any sane sense; it's a `portal' (aptly named).  It simply goes
>somewhere else to open a file, and then hands that file back to the opener.

a way for my little helper application to stuff a copy of the thing
the opener wants in a file on /tmp and pass back an open fd would be
cool.  i wonder...

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