Re: ARMS WAVING!!! Proposal to fix /proc dainbrammage.

Miquel van Smoorenburg (miquels@cistron.nl)
23 Oct 1998 22:57:06 +0200

In article <cistron.199810231924.MAA05572@sun4.apsoft.com>,
Perry Harrington <pedward@sun4.apsoft.com> wrote:
>Okay, now that I've got someone's attention :)
>
>What I propose is that we spend a little time here and establish some
>well thought out standards for the proc interface.

If you are going to change everything anyway, why not do it right
from the start.

Use /proc for processes only, and move the rest to /sysctl (or whatever).
Make it hierarchical, and use one and the same format for all
files, say fieldname: value. For the current multivalue lines use

fieldname1.0: value
fieldname2.0: value
fieldname1.1: value
fieldname2.1: value

Give a unique numeric value to all fieldnames as well, and implement
a sysctl way to get the values in binary format too (ASN.1 ?). It
sucks that the kernel has to convert big tables to ascii, that
a userlevel tool has to parse that and convert it back to binary ..

The current setup was made ad-hoc, it would be better to have
something that was well thought out and consistent.

Mike.

-- 
  "Did I ever tell you about the illusion of free will?"
    -- Sheriff Lucas Buck, ultimate BOFH.


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