Return-path: Received: from an-out-0708.google.com ([209.85.132.241]:25154 "EHLO an-out-0708.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755357AbYFHVZi (ORCPT ); Sun, 8 Jun 2008 17:25:38 -0400 Received: by an-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id d40so437437and.103 for ; Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:25:36 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <43e72e890806081425h4e785800nc618fc1985f9809f@mail.gmail.com> (sfid-20080608_232543_873639_74C0A387) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 14:25:36 -0700 From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" To: linux-wireless Subject: Is configfs the right solution for configuration based fs? Cc: "linux kernel" , "Greg KH" , "Joel Becker" , "Satyam Sharma" , "Felix Fietkau" , "Al Viro" , "H. Peter Anvin" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: I was really interested in looking to start a filesystem based approach for configuration of wireless a while back, an alternative to nl80211 if you will, but I stopped after I was told about some major issues with configfs. I forget the issues raised clearly so I'd like to bring this up for debate to see what really are the issues, what needs to be fixed so we can *properly* use a fs for configuration of subsystems. I thought configfs was the solution. We currently use and abuse debugfs, but it doesn't matter -- we don't expect users to depend on those files for ABI. It, however, it would be nice to finally export some of these values into a concise place so userspace *can* rely on them. I'm ultimately looking for an option to reduce the size of the kernel you'd need for wirless configuration, or at least to make easier for userspace. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying I want an alternative to nl80211 -- I realize we already decided on that and are moving along in that direction, I'm just wondering once that is done what is the right place to look at and if we don't have anything what are the things we need to take into consideration so we *do* use or implement the *right thing*. Perhaps a fs is not even the most optimized approach for size anyway so the benefits may just be helping with the easy design of userspace applications. Feedback on experiences are welcomed. PS. I'm hoping those who *really* hate configs can comment Luis