Re: [xml-dev] An XML language for describing file attributes of adirecto

["David A. Lee" <dlee@calldei.com>]

The xls command in xmlsh does exactly this, but I wouldnt consider it a 
format designed for long term archival use.
It might be useful to you or it might not

www.xmlsh.org

Example output
xls -l


<dir>
  <file name="README.txt" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/README.txt" 
length="191" type="file" readable="true" writable="true" 
executable="true" mtime="2008-11-10T11:18:59"/>
  <file name="_dist" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/_dist" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-23T10:38:00"/>
  <file name="_out" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/_out" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-23T10:38:04"/>
  <file name="bin" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/bin" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-23T10:26:06"/>
  <file name="build-lib" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/build-lib" 
length="0" type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-01T11:57:19"/>
  <file name="build.xml" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/build.xml" 
length="3732" type="file" readable="true" writable="true" 
executable="true" mtime="2009-11-14T12:31:37"/>
  <file name="doc" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/doc" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-01T11:56:17"/>
  <file name="lib" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/lib" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-20T07:56:56"/>
  <file name="license.txt" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/license.txt" 
length="1540" type="file" readable="true" writable="true" 
executable="true" mtime="2009-04-09T09:15:50"/>
  <file name="notices" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/notices" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-20T07:49:36"/>
  <file name="out.txt" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/out.txt" length="0" 
type="file" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-23T20:44:33"/>
  <file name="samples" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/samples" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-05-27T11:36:54"/>
  <file name="schemas" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/schemas" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2008-05-26T20:36:41"/>
  <file name="sh_histo" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/sh_histo" 
length="23" type="file" readable="true" writable="true" 
executable="true" mtime="2009-11-23T11:02:38"/>
  <file name="src" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/src" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-03-20T10:21:07"/>
  <file name="test" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/test" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-10-29T11:14:29"/>
  <file name="unix" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/unix" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-11-16T15:17:48"/>
  <file name="win32" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/win32" length="0" 
type="dir" readable="true" writable="true" executable="true" 
mtime="2009-09-20T07:54:55"/>
  <file name="xmlsh.log" path="C:/Work/DEI/xmlsh/trunk/xmlsh.log" 
length="116538" type="file" readable="true" writable="true" 
executable="true" mtime="2009-11-23T20:44:31"/>
</dir>





David A. Lee
dlee@calldei.com  
http://www.calldei.com
http://www.xmlsh.org
812-482-5224



Jim DeLaHunt wrote:
> 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!