File attributes

GNOME VFS also provides a GnomeVFSFileInfo object that works as an extension of struct stat in Unix. In addition to the standard attributes that struct stat provides, GnomeVFSFileInfo also gives access to:

• MIME type information. GNOME VFS is able to take advantage of plug-ins for which the MIME type is part of the informatin that the access method provides. For example, in the case of the HTTP back-end, GNOME VFS can provide the MIME type as returned by the HTTP server.
• Metadata. Arbitrary value/key pairs can be associated with files, for generic purposes. For example, you can use an ``icon'' value for specifying a file's icon, or a ``description'' value for a verbose description of the file.

As some kind of information might not be supported by certain plug-ins (for example, it is not possible to know the number of physical blocks occupied by a file via HTTP), GnomeVFSFileInfo provides a bitmask specifying which fields are actually valid and which are not.

GNOME VFS also provides a simple API for loading directory information in a progressive way, calling an asynchronous callback as data is copied into memory. This functionality is particularly useful for a file manager, as the directory view can be updated without blocking the user interface and thus giving the user effective visual feedback of what is going on, even with those slow back-ends for which reading a directory is an expensive operation (such as a tar file access method, that requires a sequential scan of the whole .tar file).