I mean OP now has 2 Gb of files (originals) AND (almost) 2 Gb of files (stripped) = total (almost) 4 Gb.

...

What I got from the original request was *something* that allowed to have AT THE SAME TIME available the "original" and the "stripped" versions of all files BUT saving the space.

I agree with your understanding that he want's both versions available at the same time, but I think you have it slightly backwards. I the think the originals ARE the stripped versions. The ones he adds have metadata ADDED to them.

I want to add metadata to these but I want to keep the original unmodified files as well.

Not that that makes any difference to your conclusions. I don't think that is currently possible to do, though I can see it would be handy. As of now, an external file with the added info, or "duplicate" copies as he is doing now, seems to be his only options.

Cheers and Regards

Jaclaz is correct on all accounts. Another solution I thought of is to have some way to point to two files as if they were one file

• file1 -> partA + partC
  
• file2 -> partB + partC
  

BTW, working on windows would be a perk but is not required. I can install the solution on a linux box or VM and share the folder(s) with RW permissions.

The original FLAC files without metadata already exist, so it's just a matter of generating files or streams that also contain the metadata without duplicating the original data.

IIRC, VideoLan and VirtualDub both have a video/audio server mode that can create streams on-the-fly from separate audio and metadata files. And Quicktime / MP4 file formats support metadata physically present in the file along with audio tracks that are referenced from another file (the original FLAC file in our case here). Perhaps there are also other ASX or playlist formats that would suffice.

The posted FUSE filesystem drivers approach actually does provide the solution, you have an "original" series of .flac files that are actually available ALSO AND AT THE SAME TIME as .mp3.

The shortcoming of this approach is that decoding/re-encoding the file on-the-fly (and upon request) will need some (a lot of) computer power.

Think (very simplified) to gzip.

The gzip compression format is "pipable", so you can well keep your files gzipped, and have them uncompressed on the fly transparently, but this saves space at the cost of CPU cycles.

It is possible in theory to make a .flac FUSE filesystem capable of stripping on the fly the metadata, which should be fairly simple and not hogging the CPU, but I don't think there is one already made:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/fuse/index.php?title=FileSystems

Another couple examples:

http://amaras-tech.co.uk/software/rfuse_flac_to_mov_fs

https://www.uitwisselplatform.nl/projects/yacufs <- this one is seemingly dead

http://cuemounter.codeplex.com/ <- Windows

About the:

• file1 -> partA + partC
  
• file2 -> partB + partC
  

IF the metadata is contained exclusively in the first part (or - if you prefer - part C is NOT metadata) it is also possible, though again I don't think something already exists.

Just for the record, here is that concept applied to the whole filesystem (nothing you can actually use, just a "demo" or PoC), meet Overlapping FileSystem :

http://reboot.pro/topic/2887-boot-bartpe-as-img-from-hdd-with-grub4dos/?p=19803

(idea was never actually finalized as there was little interest and it 's use would have been however useful only for very "narrow" scopes)

jaclaz

I think maybe I can install svn + webdav on my server with apache and map a drive letter to it.