Since I've just announced the creation of the 4.5.x development release series, here are my current thoughts on what should or might go into it:
1. Merging code contributions made by Leslie Polzer as part of his Google Summer of Code 2007 work. This includes: a. Enhancements to xargs to cope dynamically with platforms where the value of ARG_MAX is in fact an overestimate. b. An xargs bugfix allowing the correct handling of child exit values 126 and 127 and better diagnosis of exec failure. c. Extended attribute support for find d. Replacement of the updatedb shell script with a C program (benefits include correct handling of paths with spaces, among other things) 2. Move some of the find optimisations currently done at high optimisation (-O) levels down to lower levels. 3. Consider moving from fts() to the forthcoming gfts() 4. This is also an opportunity to consider overhauling the locate database. This might allow several possible enhancements - make database updates more efficient by performing incremental updates (this would probably mean adding a 3rd format). - being more NFS-friendly by using a federated database composed of fragments at each mount point. Your suggestions would be appreciated, too. Thanks, James.
