Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752854AbaBZQRY (ORCPT ); Wed, 26 Feb 2014 11:17:24 -0500 Received: from cantor2.suse.de ([195.135.220.15]:47169 "EHLO mx2.suse.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751319AbaBZQRW (ORCPT ); Wed, 26 Feb 2014 11:17:22 -0500 Message-ID: <530E2518.5090102@suse.de> Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 18:32:08 +0100 From: Alexander Graf User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20090817) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Sven-Haegar Koch CC: Dave Hansen , "linux-mm@kvack.org" , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , Rik van Riel , Mel Gorman , Andrew Morton , Peter Zijlstra , Ingo Molnar , Hugh Dickins , Izik Eidus , Andrea Arcangeli Subject: Re: [PATCH] ksm: Expose configuration via sysctl References: <1393284484-27637-1-git-send-email-agraf@suse.de> <530CD443.7010400@intel.com> <4B3C0B08-45E1-48EF-8030-A3365F0E7CF6@suse.de> <530D3102.60504@intel.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Sven-Haegar Koch wrote: > On Tue, 25 Feb 2014, Dave Hansen wrote: > > >> On 02/25/2014 03:09 PM, Alexander Graf wrote: >> >>>> Couldn't we also (maybe in parallel) just teach the sysctl userspace >>>> about sysfs? This way we don't have to do parallel sysctls and sysfs >>>> for *EVERYTHING* in the kernel: >>>> >>>> sysfs.kernel.mm.transparent_hugepage.enabled=enabled >>>> >>> It's pretty hard to filter this. We definitely do not want to expose all of sysfs through /proc/sys. But how do we know which files are actual configuration and which ones are dynamic system introspection data? >>> >>> We could add a filter, but then we can just as well stick with the manual approach I followed here :). >>> >> Maybe not stick it under /proc/sys, but teach sysctl(8) about them. I >> guess at the moment, sysctl says that it's tied to /proc/sys: >> >> >>> DESCRIPTION >>> sysctl is used to modify kernel parameters at runtime. The parameters available are those listed under /proc/sys/. Procfs is required >>> for sysctl support in Linux. You can use sysctl to both read and write sysctl data. >>> >> But surely that's not set in stone just because the manpage says so. :) >> > > What I still don't get is why you need this? > > My distribution (Debian) has a sysfsutils package which provides a > /etc/sysfs.conf / /etc/sysfs.d/foo exactly like /etc/sysctl.conf. > > Don't other distributions have something like this? > Maybe that's the right answer to the problem, but I still don't understand why these properties were put into sysfs in the first place. We're not configuring a dynamic device here, are we? Also if we do want something like a sysfs.conf and sysfs.d, that should probably be something that gets properly coordinated between distributions so that users don't get completely confused. Today openSUSE does not have a sysfs.conf/.d provided by the sysfsutils package. Maybe it's something homegrown? Alex -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/