[Yaffs] Extended attribute support

Hi,

I've started looking into squeezing extended attribute support (xattr) into
YAFFS. Specifically I would be working on the generic xattr support plus
support for the user, trusted, and security namespaces. I've already got
some ideas floating around in my head but I wanted to see if anyone on list
has explored this before.

I briefly thought I could get away with adding a small blob to the
yaffs_DeviceStruct to handle the device-level data and adding an xattr
object variant to handle the raw data. But now I'm not so sure since
xattr's aren't objects in the "object variant" sense.

1. Does the relationship between yaffs_Objects (parent, siblings, children)
preclude implementing xattrs as an object variant?

2. I have seen the ChunkCache but I don't think the xattr should be
polluting that cache. Right?

3. To actually get the chunk data into NAND I could use ObjectHeaders (and
the associated Object) or raw data. The way the "name" member of the
ObjectHeader struct is used in other parts of the code
(yaffs_FindObjectByName) leads me to believe I can't/shouldn't be using them
for xattr's. Correct?

Aside from those questions, anyone aware of any work going on in this area?
Any show stoppers jump to mind or suggestions?


Thanks,
--Spencer