Oh, and the other nice thing is this in our own code for ext2.... # if EXT2_IFSOCK != S_IFSOCK if (EXT2_ISSOCK (mode)) { ptr->mode &= ~EXT2_IFSOCK; ptr->mode |= S_IFSOCK; } # endif The above is because if you bring in a filesystem from another Linux machine that uses EXT2 we have to do conversion. Yuck. It makes sense to move to this "defacto" standard.
No. ext2.xfs is a device driver, subordinate to the kernel. It has to do as many data conversions as it is necessary for the kernel and (if the data reaches the apps) applications.
I would be against the change until more evidence is available. For now, only two programs have been adduced, one being a programming language (and the problematic file is *.py), and nothing has been quoted from the other one (git? or what), that would make it evident that MiNT's stat() is to be changed.
Pozdrawiam KMK