It would be useful for users to be able to specify the file layout to use based on the filename extension. For example, choose a widely-striped layout for .mpg movies, choose a single-striped layout for .mp3 audio files, and choose no-compression options for files with .gz and .bz2 extensions.

In the first implementation, we might consider storing a table on the MDS of extension->FID mappings, where the referenced FID is used as the template for new files. An improvement on this would allow users to specify such a table on a parent directory, so they can create mappings without the input of the sysadmin.