impact of new virutal file systems is very isolated. Wise design of [['''package''']] [['''package''']] knows nothing about files at all. It works only with ''scripts''. [['''package unknown''']] is the hook you can use to give [['''package''']] a command that does know something about files and filesystems. By default that command is [['''tclPkgUnknown''']]. Everything you ''think'' [['''package'''] knows about files and the file system ('''pkgIndex.tcl''', ''auto_path'', weird [['''package names''']] discovery of installed packages after first [['''package require''']]) are all really (mis-?)features of [['''tclPkgUnknown''']]. So does the presence of virtual file systems imply any different useful default behavior for a default [['''package unknown''']]? In particular, now that we can have multiple filesystems, should each filesystem itself have power to independently tell [['''package''']] how (index scripts of) packages are to be found within it? It makes some sense, in that it gives the "owner" of a resource, offered to an interp as a virtual file system, to have some control over how that resource is accessed. Also, if we don't give that cont OTOH, to some extent it tears down the illusion of one single unified file system. Up to now, there's been one filesystem - the native one, and [['''source''']-ing ''init.tcl'' told the interp how to find packages in it. Could extend that idea to a mount-time callback for a virtual filesystem to register info to be used by (a default?) package unknown command. '''Problems:''' [['''package''']] manages per-interp resources, but virtual filesystems are per-process resources. Any [['''package unknown''']] customization is problematic unless/until the [install-side of PACKAGE UNKNOWN] is completed. ---- VFS can give us a new perspectives on '''installation'''. ''Install'' means "do something to place files on my filesystem that have the effect of making a package available to Tcl programs I run". Common model is retrieve some archive file from the network, or from removable media. Do something to that file, and have package(s) installed as a consequence. VFS offers different models. Starkit - don't install. Packages are already installed, but they are installed in a virtual file system that gets mounted at program startup. Network loading - Network access can be presented to Tcl program as just another filesystem. Don't install. Just find a network resource that already has the package installed, and mount its VFS interface Different style of tradtional install -- one that does write files onto your local native filesystem, but could use network resource mounted as a VFS as its source; no need for explicit pack/unpack as an archive.