The discussion a couple of weeks ago about "What /proc should contain" got me
thinking. I decided that most of what /proc does is not needed for embedded
Linux (in this context by "Embedded Linux" I refer to multiprocess distros
along the lines of the Linux Router Project and the like, as opposed to deeply
embedded, single use, single process stuff).
Since I maintain busybox (which provides minimalist replacements for most of
the utilities you usually find on your desktop) I decided to figure out what
parts of busybox depend on /proc and then begin writing kernel drivers to
replace the /proc derived information.
Since my kernel drivers are now sufficient for busybox, I'm interested in
comments, flames, design issues, and general peer review. The patch is vs
2.2.14pre13 (I havn't tested it yet with the 2.3 kernels), My kernel patch can
be obtained from:
ftp://slag.lineo.com/busybox/devps.patch.3_7
This patch provides 3 device drivers: devps, devmtab, and devmodules.
mknod /dev/ps c 10 21
mknod /dev/mtab c 10 22
mknod /dev/modules c 10 23
In my patch I also provide 3 simple user space apps that exercise the drivers.
I have also provided a version of busybox
ftp://slag.lineo.com/busybox/busybox-0.43pre1.tar.gz
that (when BB_FEATURE_USE_DEVPS_PATCH is defined in busybox.def.h) also uses
these new drivers. With all 3 drivers installed in the kernel, they take up
6588 bytes (which is a _lot_ smaller than having to compile in /proc).
-Erik
--
Erik B. Andersen Web: http://www.xmission.com/~andersen/
email: andersee@debian.org
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