Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Tue, 1 Oct 1996 17:50:40 +1000 (EST) | From | Keith Owens <> | Subject | Re: proposal for generic interface to /proc text files |
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On Tue, 1 Oct 1996, Rob Riggs wrote: > On 01-Oct-96 Tyson D Sawyer wrote: > >A good adaptable interface doesn't need backwards compatitbility, > >as is the case of tagged entries. [snip]
> I think one file, distributed with the kernel and describing the current > proc layout, is best. [snip]
Hidden assumption there. It requires that all fields in every /proc file appear every time, that is, it makes no allowance for conditional output. Some files *might* want to omit fields that do not apply to the current environment. A simple field by field proc descriptor file cannot cope with this format without some form of identifier in the files, which is where we came in.
Of course we could mandate that all proc files display all their fields every time, i.e. no conditional output. We just need to be sure that we are happy with that decision.
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