
Three months ago, when I started to think about it, I knew nothing
about file systems nor about compression. I read the ext2fs sources to
make me an idea, and it was quite obvious from the beginning that the
only way to do it was as described in the HOWTO file. I had no doubt
about that, for I didn't want to make something fs independent, and I
wanted to do it quickly.

The idea is quite simple, effective and easy to implement. It can be
adapted to probably almost every existing file system. Since I didn't
make any bibliography research, I can't say if it is original. The
only thing I know is that it does not seem to have been used in other
freely available compressing file systems that I know, that work on
the block level, have no idea of the file structure, and are a little
more complicated.

If it turns out that the idea is original, I want to make it freely
available, and I encourage maintainers of other file systems to use it
if they feel it would be useful. The first sources and the file
containing the description of the idea have been distributed to a few
testers on April 5, 1995, and I consider this is equivalent to a
scientific publication.

This can also be used in commercial applications, but there is one
restriction : the author (me) must be acknowledged BOTH in the source code,
AND in the user's documentation. You must not claim that it is your
idea, and original contributions from every part should be clearly
indicated in the source code and in the user's documentation. There is
no more restriction.

Of course, if it turns out that the idea is not original and has been
already used, please let me know, and I will change this notice.

The source code itself is placed under the GNU General Public License.

Except for the access to the net, provided by my employer, this work
was done without any support.

	Antoine de Maricourt, May 5, 1995.

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