Files-as-Filesystems for POSIX Shell Data Processing

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The POSIX shell is 'stringy', and its ecosystem primarily supports line-oriented formats. While such formats are popular and common, contemporary programming often involves semi-structured data, like JSON or YAML. Dealing with such formats, the shell's stringiness leaves users out in the cold - -the POSIX ecosystem struggles with semi-structured data. New command-line tools work well with 'modern' data formats, but each tool is its own complex language to learn. The tree-like filesystem is the shell's only real data structure. By mapping 'modern' formats onto file hierarchies, we can work effectively in the existing ecosystem. We introduce ffs, the file filesystem, a new tool for mapping semi-structured data formats to filesystems in userspace. Like /proc and /sys, our filesystem-based approach helps the shell (and other tools) manipulate structured data.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPLOS 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 11th Workshop on Programming Languages and Operating Systems
Pages17-23
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781450387071
DOIs
StatePublished - 25 Oct 2021
Event11th Workshop on Programming Languages and Operating Systems, PLOS 2021 - Virtual, Online, Germany
Duration: 25 Oct 2021 → …

Publication series

NamePLOS 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 11th Workshop on Programming Languages and Operating Systems

Conference

Conference11th Workshop on Programming Languages and Operating Systems, PLOS 2021
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityVirtual, Online
Period25/10/21 → …

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