Messages in this thread |  | | Subject | Re: Machine friendly format for /proc files | Date | Wed, 19 Feb 1997 09:29:24 PST | From | "Marty Leisner" <> |
| |
> > > On Mon, 17 Feb 1997, Snow Cat wrote: > > > Wouldn't ioctl support for /proc files be more logical? > > You've got my vote for that. Its fine for a human to browse through /proc, > but programs shouldn't have to rely on the format of /proc file entries to > work properly - for the simple reason that its WASTEFUL to convert binary > information to text just to convert the text back to binary in order to > use it, not to mention any file descriptors opened in the process. > >
Actual, historically, programs like ps and top groveled around kernel structures, reading kernel memory to figure out what was going on.
One of the reason for the /proc file system is it makes things very easy to examine, and the applications doesn't have to be setguid kmem.
If you define a special ioctl, you still need something special, in which case why don't you just grovel around kernel structures.
You **could** make a top which reads the kernel structures (some ports do).
-- marty leisner@sdsp.mc.xerox.com Member of the League for Programming Freedom
|  |