Re: [PATCH] 2.5 PROPOSAL: Replacement for current /proc of shit.

Jakob Østergaard (jakob@unthought.net)
Sun, 4 Nov 2001 03:08:32 +0100


On Sun, Nov 04, 2001 at 02:40:51AM +0100, Daniel Phillips wrote:
> On November 2, 2001 03:20 am, Rusty Russell wrote:
> > I agree with the "one file, one value" idea.
>
> So cat /proc/partitions goes from being a nice, easy to read and use human
> interface to something other than that. Lets not go overboard.

/proc is usually a very nice interface that's both human- and machine-readable.
Some changes have gone in though (such as /proc/mdstat) that makes the proc
files implement something more like a pretty-printing user interface with
text-mode progress bars and what not. That's a PITA to parse.

Now, if established files in proc could just be stable, so that they would not
change unless non-backwards-compatible information absolutely must be
presented, that would be a major step in the right direction. Further, if we
could find some acceptable compromise between human- and machine- readability,
as has happened in the past...

Then, someone might just implement the equivalent of kstat (from Solaris) or
pstat (from HP-UX). Under a license so that commercial players could actually
link to the library as well (unlike the gproc library).

So call me a dreamer ;)

(For the record, it's not unlikely that I would be able to dedicate some
time to that effort in a not too distant future - say, 2.5 ?)

-- 
................................................................
:   jakob@unthought.net   : And I see the elder races,         :
:.........................: putrid forms of man                :
:   Jakob Østergaard      : See him rise and claim the earth,  :
:        OZ9ABN           : his downfall is at hand.           :
:.........................:............{Konkhra}...............:
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