New Modes of Creating a FileSystemWritableFileStream

[a-sully]

The proposal for a new locking scheme - intended primarily to address #34 - also proposes new modes of creating a writable file stream

Migrating the following conversation over from https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/861 (cc @jesup)

@a-sully:

One thing I think we should align on it the behavior of the "exclusive" mode. The explainer currently proposes the following:

enum FileSystemWritableFileStreamMode { 
  "exclusive", // Only one writer can exist at a time
  "siloed",    // Each writer created will have its own swap file
};

where "exclusive" was expected to still follow the current pattern of writing to a swap file (apologies that this was not explicitly called out in the explainer, which was primarily focused on SyncAccessHandles). It seems prudent to leave the door open to add a third option for exclusive + in-place writes (even if this mode would not be supported when writing to the local file system - WICG/file-system-access#260 has lots of discussion about this). For example:

enum FileSystemWritableFileStreamMode { 
  "exclusive-in-place", // Only one writer can exist at a time, which writes directly to the target file
  "exclusive-atomic",   // Only one writer can exist at a time, which writes to a swap file
  "siloed",             // Each writer created will have its own swap file; last writer to close() wins
};

Thoughts? Happy to move this to a spec issue to further discuss if needed!

@janvarga:

Only SyncAccessHandle can currently directly access the file. Some developers don't like sync APIs, so providing "exclusive-in-place" access via FileSystemWritableFileStream might look compelling from this point of view. "Abort" could only close the stream in that case indeed.

[a-sully]

Only SyncAccessHandle can currently directly access the file. Some developers don't like sync APIs, so providing "exclusive-in-place" access via FileSystemWritableFileStream might look compelling from this point of view. "Abort" could only close the stream in that case indeed.

Right, "abort" would be a bit of a misnomer. But I think that's okay?

Another potential source of confusion might be that createWritable({ mode: "exclusive-in-place" }) would clear the file, since keepExistingData defaults to false. So most(?) developers using this presumably would want createWritable({ mode: "exclusive-in-place", keepExistingData: true })... but I think that's okay, too? Changing the default only for this mode seems even more likely to lead to confusion

[a-sully]

Also, curious to hear thoughts on this issue from @annevk or @szewai

[janvarga]

Right, "abort" would be a bit of a misnomer. But I think that's okay?

Yes, I think that's ok, just that the spec should probably mention that.

Another potential source of confusion might be that createWritable({ mode: "exclusive-in-place" }) would clear the file, since keepExistingData defaults to false. So most(?) developers using this presumably would want createWritable({ mode: "exclusive-in-place", keepExistingData: true })... but I think that's okay, too? Changing the default only for this mode seems even more likely to lead to confusion

Yeah, they would have to add "keepExistingData: true" too.