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[filesystem] Add note prioritizing compatibility over portability #847

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[filesystem] Add note prioritizing compatibility over portability #847

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17 changes: 14 additions & 3 deletions proposals/filesystem/wit-0.3.0-draft/types.wit
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Expand Up @@ -3,9 +3,6 @@ package wasi:[email protected];
/// programs that access their files on their existing filesystems, without
/// significant overhead.
///
/// It is intended to be roughly portable between Unix-family platforms and
/// Windows, though it does not hide many of the major differences.
///
/// Paths are passed as interface-type `string`s, meaning they must consist of
/// a sequence of Unicode Scalar Values (USVs). Some filesystems may contain
/// paths which are not accessible by this API.
Expand All @@ -22,6 +19,20 @@ package wasi:[email protected];
/// For more information about WASI path resolution and sandboxing, see
/// [WASI filesystem path resolution].
///
/// Though this package presents a portable interface modelled on POSIX, it
/// prioritizes compatibility over portability: allowing users to access their
/// files on their machine is more important than exposing a single semantics
/// across all platforms. Notably, depending on the underlying operating system
/// and file system:
/// * Paths may be case-folded or not.
/// * Deleting (unlinking) a file may fail if there are other file descriptors
/// open.
/// * Durability and atomicity of changes to underlying files when there are
/// concurrent writers.
///
/// Users that need well-defined, portable semantics should use a key-value
/// store or a database instead.
///
/// [WASI filesystem path resolution]: https://github.com/WebAssembly/wasi-filesystem/blob/main/path-resolution.md
@since(version = 0.3.0-rc-2025-09-16)
interface types {
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