File states
Every desktop integration reads one extended attribute, so you can inspect it yourself and any file manager’s plugin reads exactly the same thing.
getfattr -n user.wusel.state ~/Wusel/Photos/Birdie.jpgThe values
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
|
No local copy yet; opening it fetches from the server (and caches). |
|
Opened before: a whole copy is in the LRU cache, but evictable. |
|
Kept offline on purpose (pinned, or under a pinned dir/root). |
|
Pinned, but the copy we keep is out of date: the server has moved on. |
|
A local edit not yet uploaded. |
Staleness is shown for pinned files only. For an ordinary cached file it just means the next read goes live, which is what a VFS does all day; a pin promises the file is there when the server is not, so an outdated copy is a promise half-kept and worth showing before someone opens it.
Beside it sits an explicit Update now action — in the context menu when a
pinned-stale file is selected, and as wusel update <path> on the command
line. It fetches the current version in place: deliberately not "unpin, then
pin again", which would drop the eviction marker first, so a re-download that
failed would leave the file outdated and unprotected.
Whether the user has to ask at all is [sync] refresh_pinned — manual (emblem
only), ask (one notification when the backlog grows, naming the first file and
counting the rest) or auto (fetch by itself, but only over an unmetered
connection).
See the policy for what happens
when the connection’s cost cannot be established.
The engine guarantees this read is local and network-free, so a file manager may query it for every visible file. Directories report a value only when pinned.
The attribute describes where a file is, not what it is — it is
only meaningful inside the mount. Linux copies extended attributes along
with the file, so a copy made outside ~/Wusel carries a dead value, and every
reader must establish that the path is on a Wusel mount before trusting it. See
Known limitations.
|
The emblems
Every state gets a distinct, always-visible emblem — the OneDrive model, rather than marking only the exceptions. Current Adwaita has pruned its stock emblem set, so the Nautilus extension ships its own icons, installed into the hicolor theme:
| State | Emblem |
|---|---|
|
A cloud — lives on the server, not downloaded. |
|
A cloud with a check — downloaded now, but still evictable. |
|
A green check — kept offline, always available. |
|
A green check with a warning — kept offline, but out of date. |
|
An up-arrow — a local edit awaiting upload. |