> There are a whole bunch of issues associated with this - and I'm not sure
> it would work, but the idea is basically fundamentally simple.
> 
> Apart from ACLs, this could store stuff like dump/archive history,
> or macintosh type "forks" or almost anything else that it makes sense
> to have all linked together with a file.

I would hope that any such scheme would also include support for
efficiently allocating very small files -- perhaps ones as small as 50
bytes or less.

> Actually making an ACL system on top of this ought then be fairly easy
> (assuming some kind of suitable ACL language can be designed).

I believe that there's already a posix spec on how to do acls.  It's
not exactly pretty; most of this ugliness derives from the interaction
between chmod/chgrp/chown and acls.

						- Bill