The O_PONIES thing came up in the context of how ext3 behaves, how app writers wish that every filesystem behaved like ext3 (in the good ways , of course, not in the bad ways, oh no!) and how generally they’d like a pony with that, too, please. In other words, open your files with O_PONIES and the world is your oyster; the filesystem will grant your every wish.
It’s become the running joke among the filesystem developers I know, but as it turns out I was the one who coined it (I think?) Jeff thinks so too, which is what reminded me. Ted T’so thought it was Jeff, but he was 2 weeks behind the curve. Who knew I’d leave such a lasting impression.
$ grep O_PONIES OFTC-#linuxfs.txt | head -n 1
<sandeen> Mar 15 23:34:10 open(my_configfile, O_PONIES);
I made a tshirt, too:
O_PONIES
But it was Val, with her impeccable sense of style, timing, and politics, who had the good sense to make a t-shirt with an extra inkjet t-shirt transfer I gave her, and wear it on photo day at LSF:
LSF Group Photo
I wore mine on day 1, and other than a photo Matt Mackall took, there is no record.
But now you know the secret of the man behind the O_PONIES curtain!