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Re:S3 is files, but not a filesystem by 8organicbits on Sunday March 10, 2024 @04:09AM (#39657532)
Another challenge is directory flattening. On a file system "a/b" and "a//b" are usually considered the same path. But on S3 the slash isn't a directory separator, so the paths are distinct. You need to be extra careful when building paths not to include double slashes.

Many tools end up handling this by showing a folder named "a" containing a folder named "" (empty string). This confuses users quite a bit. It's more than the inodes, it's how the tooling handles the abstraction.

Re:S3 is files, but not a filesystem by hnlmorg on Sunday March 10, 2024 @04:14AM (#39657553)
Coincidentally I ran into an issue just like this a week ago. A customer facing application failed because there was an object named “/foo/bar” (emphasis on the leading slash).

This created a prefix named “/“ which confused the hell out of the application.