GmailFS

ahubu · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 6:26 pm Post subject: GmailFS

wow, check this out: somebody succeeded to mount his gmail account on linux. result: 1 gb of remote space. Respect!

http://richard.jones.name/google-hacks/gmail-filesystem/gmail-filesystem.html

(hm, was on slashdot too) I just HAVE to try this lateron.

Cossins · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 6:42 pm Post subject:

Yeah, while it can't be too efficient (being written in Python in user-space), it is indeed a cool kind of proof-of-concept. I doubt it is suitable for production use, but maybe it could be one day (unless Google cuts it off, which would make sense server-load wise).

- Simon
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who cares

Pythonhead · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 6:57 pm Post subject:

I bet Google will start shutting down accounts quickly since using gmail as storage is against their policy.

Heres an ebuild I wrote for libgmail if you want to check your gmail for new mail, download it etc:
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=62100

Check out the demos directory for scripts for pop3, smtp etc

ahubu · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 7:00 pm Post subject:

yeah, they'll probably cut it off. I highly doubt they have enough free space to actually host 1gb of space for every user: they probably calculated some mean of space used by every user. This mean will be a lot higher when the space is this accessible, I guess.

ahubu · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 7:07 pm Post subject:

from gmail terms of use:

viperlin · Veteran Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 1319 Location: UK

lol i'm still waiting for a decent working way of auto checking my gmail, gkrellm plugin would be nice

ahubu · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 8:33 pm Post subject:

offtopic@viperlin: maybe a gdesklet? I saw plenty at the website. And well, only one desklet won't kill your cpu

Pythonhead · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:10 pm Post subject:

viperlin · Veteran Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 1319 Location: UK

actually i've tried all the desklets, they either dont work or only ever check the account once, then crash....

the gnome applet doesnt appear in the status notification menu :-)

but anyway gmailfs is against the rules, but they must have seen it coming :-)

ahubu · Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:31 pm Post subject:

yikes. Anyway I cannot confirm that as I am still waiting for somebody to invite me to gmail. Heard on the forum that it is worth it. Makes me curious.

edit: thanks for every person who offered an account. I now have one, thank you. Not that it is so spectacular, but I am satisfied

nilbus · Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2004 2:16 pm Post subject: speeds

The transfer rate for files is the same as your upload speed, but the
time per transaction is pretty high. My modem's upload is capped at
40k/s.
It takes me 8.5 seconds to create an empty file with touch, and 2
seconds to delete it. I got an effective rate of 22k/s uploading a 1
meg file, and 34k/s uploading a 35 meg file. It took 35 seconds to
delete the 35 meg file.

Not very fast, but pretty cool anyway.

Squinky86 · Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2004 9:06 pm Post subject:

Please respect the policies you agreed to when signing up for gmail (more notes in bug #62100).
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S. Traaken · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 135

Zepp · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:45 am Post subject:

neat but if it becomes a problem i am sure google will simply stop it from working

Squinky86 · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 4:33 pm Post subject:

ahubu · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:07 pm Post subject:

While I 99% agree with you squinky, can't help but think about all that p2p software that is in portage, which IS being used in more obscure ways than GMailFS is (yet). This is unprofessional in a way too. The license of those networks also state that users shouldn't trade illegal stuff, it still is done, is that a reason to ban the software?

Arr, this thread is heading off the wall

Squinky86 · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:18 pm Post subject:

ahubu · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 10:57 pm Post subject:

hmm, browse your attachments as a filesystem? That could be useful in a way.
You could mail your important docs to yourself each day in an attachment, as a cronjob. Then, with GmailFS, you could erase the old mail. Nifty eh?

The legal thing would just be a sort of tolerated existence of the system. Like softdrugs in the Netherlands

Or, maybe the system could provide a way to POP3 your gmail account. This is just a guess, but I couldn't see any harm in that actually. That would seem to me something equal to the yahoo and hotmail webmail fetch things. I am just guessing now as I am not sure whether this can be done with this implementation.

viperlin · Veteran Joined: 15 Apr 2003 Posts: 1319 Location: UK

Squinky86 · Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:55 am Post subject:

ahubu · Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:00 pm Post subject:

yep, I know: that license is tight. That actaully means that gmail has to come up with some sort of imap/pop3 service, or it will be useless. At least for me. I already have 120gb of mailspace (my hdd). I actually never could understand why people don't use imap or pop3. Webmail is so passe. :wink:

Arker · Apprentice Joined: 10 Sep 2002 Posts: 205

This abuse is why free services like Hotmail et al suck in the first place.

~djc
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*LIK*

My other computer is your Windows box.

silentbob · Apprentice Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Posts: 159 Location: UK

As a proof of concept I think the gmailFS is fantastic. I don't really think it has any real practical value; I might give it a go for the geek / curiosity factor though!! I only signed up for the gmail account because it was available, I don't even use it for my primary email.

Carlo · Developer Joined: 12 Aug 2002 Posts: 3356

Zepp · Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 1:10 am Post subject: