Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Wed, 7 Nov 2001 14:22:57 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Wed, 7 Nov 2001 14:22:47 -0500 Received: from sweetums.bluetronic.net ([66.57.88.6]:15262 "EHLO sweetums.bluetronic.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Wed, 7 Nov 2001 14:22:41 -0500 Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 14:21:19 -0500 (EST) From: Ricky Beam X-X-Sender: To: Blue Lang cc: Linux Kernel Mail List Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: /proc standards (was dot-proc interface [was: /proc In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, 7 Nov 2001, Blue Lang wrote: >I understand where the binary crowd is coming from as far as collation >goes, but I personally use the simple stuff every day (cat /proc/pci) and >any sort of aggregate/collation tool (lspci) almost never. Just as an aside, /proc/pci was slated for deletion a long time ago. There were warnings emitted by the kernel every time something accessed it for some time. /proc/pci is dependent on a (large) list of names being in the kernel to map the numbers to text. I think the plans to kill /proc/pci have been abandoned, however. (The table makes the kernel big, but most of it gets released once the pci bus scan is complete ala __init_data.) As for code maint. and kernel changes breaking things... both happen already with the text based system. Binary structures can be constructed to be extensible without breaking old tools. Plus, the information exported from the kernel (in the case of processes) need not change with every version of the kernel. I don't think people realize just how many CPU cycles are being needlessly expended in passing information between the kernel and the user. When I have the time, I'll add binary interfaces for various things and show exactly how expensive the existing system is -- all for the sake of being able to use 'cat' and 'grep'. --Ricky - 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/