Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sun, 4 Nov 2001 11:06:10 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sun, 4 Nov 2001 11:05:59 -0500 Received: from vega.digitel2002.hu ([213.163.0.181]:49295 "EHLO vega.digitel2002.hu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sun, 4 Nov 2001 11:05:51 -0500 Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 17:05:44 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-2?B?R+Fib3IgTOlu4XJ0?= To: Jakob ?stergaard Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: dot-proc interface [was: /proc stuff] Message-ID: <20011104170544.A10860@vega.digitel2002.hu> Reply-To: lgb@lgb.hu In-Reply-To: <160MMf-1ptGtMC@fmrl05.sul.t-online.com> <20011104143631.B1162@pelks01.extern.uni-tuebingen.de> <160Nyq-2ACgt6C@fmrl07.sul.t-online.com> <20011104163354.C14001@unthought.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-2 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20011104163354.C14001@unthought.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.23i X-Operating-System: vega Linux 2.4.12 i686 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, Nov 04, 2001 at 04:33:54PM +0100, Jakob ?stergaard wrote: > For each file "f" in /proc, there will be a ".f" file which is a > machine-readable version of "f", with the difference that it may contain extra > information that one may not want to present to the user in "f". > > The dot-proc file is basically a binary encoding of Lisp (or XML), e.g. it is a > list of elements, wherein an element can itself be a list (or a character string, > or a host-native numeric type. Thus, (key,value) pairs and lists thereof are > possible, as well as tree structures etc. > > All data types are stored in the architecture-native format, and a simple > library should be sufficient to parse any dot-proc file. Hmmmm. If someone would be able to implement new architecture which can provide 1:1 sysctl/procfs support, there would be need for user space programs parse proc filesystem. Then, /proc would be only good to administrators to echo to/cat entries. So compatibility with old design can remain, and new programs would be able to use the much more versatile sysctl support. OK, it's a hard guess only. ;-) - Gabor - 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/