Re: Need help for translation.

[Bernhard Voelker]

On 07/15/2014 02:46 PM, Philipp Thomas wrote:
> the message catalog for 8.23pre1 has 'whiteout' from lib/file-type.c. Can anyone
> please explain me what that means in that context? It's the only
> untranslated text left :)

It's a "BSD whiteout" file:

From http://fixunix.com/bsd/86985-whiteout.html#post284618:

  A 'whiteout' file is an *ARTIFICIAL* entry in any of several types of
  'translucent' filesystems, of which a 'union' filesystem is one.

  The need arises when you have one filesystem mounted 'over' another
  with the files in the underlying system _visible_ through the overlaying
  system.

  Any _changes_ to files are made in the overlaying filesystem -- the underlying
  files are *NOT* changed in any way.

  Given that, when you _delete_ a file, a 'special' entry is required in
  the overlaying system to indicate that the underlying file should no longer
  be visible. This is what 'whiteout' does -- it paints over the real entry
  so that you cannot see what "was" there.

  Thus, to answer your question of "how would one go about creating a whiteout
  file" -- you simply _delete_ a file that exists in the underlying filesystem.

  Note: you cannot open(), read(), write(), seek(), stat(), or perform _any_
  other 'file operation' on a whiteout file -- any such attempt returns an
  'ENOENT' error.

  You cannot even 'unlink()' a whiteout file. The only way to remove a
  whiteout entry is to *create* a file by the same name.

  It is a specialized 'bookkeeping entry' for a file that "does not exist".

Well, I wouldn't translate it, or if I did, I'd try to find a
word for something like "overlay deletion placeholder".

Have a nice day,
Berny