This is where fast and reliable caching strategies, and lazy, parallel enumeration come in. I would almost want the .DS_Store to include a summary of a tree's m

This is where fast and reliable caching strategies, and lazy, parallel enumeration come in. I would almost want the .DS_Store to include a summary of a tree's metadata and update what's in view by watching watchable filesystems in order to avoid as much full remote tree walking as possible. Shared remote filesystems without a differential/OT push metadata notification API reduce clients to glorified polling. :(