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I want to create a user playpen solution that is comprised of a look through pattern. Each user would have his own folder that he can see and write to. This folder will contain his/her personal files and it will look through to a read only folder shared by the team. This look through would create the appearance that the user playpen folder contains all of the team files overplayed with his modifications and additions.

Is there software that can create such folders on Windows and on Linux?

I recognize that this need is very similar to either windows libraries feature or to using something like a source control system, but I want applications to think that the folder is a normal folder.

John Leveille
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  • That sounds like a recipe for confusion. What would you want to happen if they were to go to their read/write area, open a file which was there but wasn't really there and was read only, and then save it? – TessellatingHeckler Jun 28 '15 at 04:20
  • Unfortunately, I cannot explain all of the details. I am in the process of designing a file sharing system solution for a client. I agree that I am treading on thin ice with the potential for conflict and confusion when someone accesses a file system like this. So this effort may end without yielding a usable solution. In the meantime I am simply trying to figure out if there exists any software that can provide what I need. It is my hope that software of this ilk could inform and guide my research. If I have to build it from scratch because none exists then that is useful info too. – John Leveille Jun 28 '15 at 14:40
  • When you write overplayed, do you mean if the file example.txt already exists in someone elses playpen and I create(or copy in and modify) example.txt in my own playpen, when I open the lookthrough folder I will see only my own representation of example.txt? – ErikE Jun 28 '15 at 14:53
  • It gets more confusing. If the user's view overlays the shared one, the user never knows if there is a shared file by the same name that they can't see. They can't make a new file and have it put in the shared folder because it will end up 'under' their copy. Offline files will sync the read-only files, make them locally editable, then fail to sync. Users can't be certain if others can see "their" files, the only clue they have is if the file is read-only. Users will try to save to "the public share" to share with others, but others won't see it. – TessellatingHeckler Jun 28 '15 at 14:54
  • I guess I'm really asking if the file system should be similar to a code versioning system in allowing trunks, branches and merges, but in a view granted through explorer.exe. If so, the closest I've seen is an svn repository accessed through the tortoise client, where conflicts and unmerged changes are displayed through icon overlays (i.e. extra mini-icons on the ordinary file/folder representations, a bit like the "update digits" appearing on the AppStore app on an iphone). Using native functionality the Library- and DFS-functions seem closest but not quite. – ErikE Jun 28 '15 at 15:09

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This can be done with Linux aufs. Don't know about Windows.

Fox
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