AttributeCachingFileSystem

A kotlin based file attribute caching filesystem library

This library is meant to wrap another filesystem in order to intercept and cache calls for reading and setting file attributes.

It reduces OTHER_IOPS calls as listed in the "other" column when executing Procmon and looking at operations performed on a given file where file attributes are read and/or set.

NOTE: This filesystem does not support caching attributes from FileAttributeView(s) directly (ie: via setting and/or getting attributes from views returned from Files.getFileAttributeView()). Please use Files.readAttributes() and Files.setAttribute() to access proper attribute caching functionality.

Installation and Usage Instructions

For installation with gradle:

• Dependency to add to the top level build.gradle.kts file:

dependencies {
    // To use the attribute caching filesystem for both production and testing:
    implementation("com.pkware.filesystem:file-attribute-caching:VERSION_HERE")
    // To use the attribute caching filesystem for testing only:
    testImplementation("com.pkware.filesystem:file-attribute-caching:VERSION_HERE")
}

• The most updated VERSION_HERE can be found on the maven central repository.

Library usage examples:

// Specify any filesystem as the argument for wrapping.
AttributeCachingFileSystem.wrapping(FileSystems.getDefault()).use {
    // getPath initializes the cache for paths made from strings if the path is a file and it exists.
    val cachingPath = it.getPath("somepath.txt")

    // Continue code with using cachingPath...
}

or

// Wrapping returns a AttributeCachingFileSystem instance rather than a regular Filesystem to use
// convertToCachingPath.
AttributeCachingFileSystem.wrapping(FileSystems.getDefault()).use {
    // convertToCachingPath initializes the cache for path objects if the path is a file and it exists.
    val cachingPath = it.convertToCachingPath(existingPath)

    // Continue code with using cachingPath...
}

Instantiation and usage of the filesystem as a variable:

val cachingFilesystem = AttributeCachingFileSystem.wrapping(FileSystems.getDefault())

// Continue code using cachingFilesystem...

Example of wrapping an existing non attribute caching path's Filesystem as an AttributeCachingFilesystem and then converting the path to a caching path:

val path = Paths.get("test\\test.txt")
val cachingFilesystem = AttributeCachingFileSystem.wrapping(path.fileSystem)
val cachingPath = cachingFilesystem.convertToCachingPath(path)

// Continue code using cachingPath...

Releasing:

1. Make and checkout a release branch on github.
2. Change the version in gradle.properties to a non-SNAPSHOT version.
3. Update the CHANGELOG.md for the impending release.
4. Run git commit -am "Release X.Y.Z." (where X.Y.Z is the new version) in the terminal or command line.
5. Make a PR with your changes.
6. Merge the release PR after approval, tag the commit on the main branch with git tag -a X.Y.Z -m "X.Y.Z"(X.Y.Z is the new version).
7. Run git push --tags.
8. Run ./gradlew publish in the terminal or command line.
9. Visit Sonatype Nexus and promote the artifact.
10. Update gradle.properties to the next SNAPSHOT version.
11. Run git commit -am "Prepare next development version."
12. Make a PR with your changes.
13. Merge the next version PR after approval.

If step 8 or 9 fails, drop the Sonatype repo, fix the problem, commit, and start again at step 8.