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An XML language for describing file attributes of a directorytree?

• From: Jim DeLaHunt <from.xml-dev@jdlh.com>
• To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
• Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:37:46 -0800

Hi, XML-dev folks:

I'm looking for pointers to an XML-based language for describing file 
attributes of a directory tree. Peter Murray-Rust suggested I ask 
this list.

I have an application in mind which will record directory listings of 
a file system in text form. That is, it should say something like:

     File name is: abc.txt
     Last modification date is: 2009-12-31T01:23
     Read-only attribute is: True
     Hidden attribute is: False

The listings will persist for years in a long-term archive, so the 
language should be self-evident to an information archaeologist of 
the future. The language should be able to describe the most 
commonly-used file attributes of common PC platform file systems: 
NTFS, FAT, HFS+, ext2/3, etc. It should be able to handle non-Latin 
file names, different semantics for time stamps on different file 
systems, etc.

Of course, the obvious choice of a language for structuring this data 
is some XML-based language. Can anyone point me to a language which 
already exists for describing hierarchical structures of file 
attributes and directory attributes, as in a file system? I'm hoping 
to benefit from the work those language designers did to get the 
semantics right, create the schema or DTD, work out the niggling 
details of whether something should be an XML element or attribute, 
etc.

I've looked in the obvious places: http://xml.coverpages.com, web 
search engines, the archives of XML-L and comp.text.xml, and here. I 
didn't find any traces of such languages. The search was complicated 
a bit because the search term "file attributes" gets lots of hits on 
the term "attributes" as used in XML.

Please suggest languages I should investigate. It helps to have the 
name of the language, and a pointer to a URL where the language and 
its related tools, syntax definitions, etc. are described.  Please 
reply directly to me, or to a question I have open on Stack Overflow:
 
<http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1781936/an-xml-language-for-describing-file-attributes-of-a-directory-tree>

I can summarise for the list.

(Peter Murray-Rust's comment at Stack Overflow: "If there isn't a 
specification for this then there should be and I would expect the 
OASIS folk to be involved. [You can say I suggested it.]")

Thanks in advance!
-- 
     --Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh@jdlh.com     http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/)
       multilingual websites consultant

       157-2906 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6K 2G8, Canada
          Canada mobile +1-604-376-8953

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: An XML language for describing file attributes of adirectory tree?
    • From: Michael Sokolov <sokolov@ifactory.com>
  • Re: An XML language for describing file attributes of adirectory tree?
    • From: Liam Quin <liam@w3.org>
  • Re: An XML language for describing file attributes of adirectory tree?
    • From: "David A. Lee" <dlee@calldei.com>