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Linux does not have a single filesystem, but many of them. I guess you could create one that implements versioning. As a matter of fact around 2000 I used one (

Linux does not have a single filesystem, but many of them. I guess you could create one that implements versioning. As a matter of fact around 2000 I used one (Unix, not Linux). It was a version control system where different file versions appeared under different POSIX paths. I liked it, but it was at least as complicated as git and most developers in our organization did not really understand it a complained when things went wrong. For system administration I use etckeeper these days. That serves nearly the same purpose. But for programming VMS was superior unless you are disciplined and commit frequently enough.

lproven 4y ago
You could, but no normal Unix app will understand it or be able to use it, since this is one of the things that the Unix creators removed from the more complicated forerunners of Unix to make their smaller, simpler OS. Sadly, this simplification was, IMHO, a step too far and a bad thing to remove. But Unix's namespace is much simpler, and doesn't really understand and incorporate extensions and things either. Which is a limitation but it makes it much simpler. The fact that most Unix GUIs, from NeXTstep to KDE, put back in and use file extensions to associate files with applications shows that this is in fact important functionality. Without extensions, having version numbering doesn't make as much sense. But a Unix with file extensions and file numbers would be less like Unix than is, say, Plan 9 or Inferno.
- usr1106 4y ago
  An application does not need to understand that the filesystem keeps a copy of the previous version of a file. Also in VMS if you use a file without version number it defaults to the newest one.
  - lproven 4y ago
    I know. I ran clusters of VAX boxes, in production, in the mid-1990s. An ordinary user app doesn't need to know. A file version control system does, though. Development environments need to know. IDEs and programmers' tools need to know.

lproven 4y ago

You could, but no normal Unix app will understand it or be able to use it, since this is one of the things that the Unix creators removed from the more complicated forerunners of Unix to make their smaller, simpler OS. Sadly, this simplification was, IMHO, a step too far and a bad thing to remove. But Unix's namespace is much simpler, and doesn't really understand and incorporate extensions and things either. Which is a limitation but it makes it much simpler. The fact that most Unix GUIs, from NeXTstep to KDE, put back in and use file extensions to associate files with applications shows that this is in fact important functionality. Without extensions, having version numbering doesn't make as much sense. But a Unix with file extensions and file numbers would be less like Unix than is, say, Plan 9 or Inferno.

usr1106 4y ago
An application does not need to understand that the filesystem keeps a copy of the previous version of a file. Also in VMS if you use a file without version number it defaults to the newest one.
- lproven 4y ago
  I know. I ran clusters of VAX boxes, in production, in the mid-1990s. An ordinary user app doesn't need to know. A file version control system does, though. Development environments need to know. IDEs and programmers' tools need to know.