Messages in this thread | | | Subject | files in `proc' have zero size, yet are not `special'; is this a bug? | From | Eric Hanchrow <> | Date | 29 Sep 1999 07:58:20 -0700 |
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I recently noticed that I could not examine the "contents" of /proc/devices by visiting it in GNU Emacs, whereas I could of course just type `cat /proc/devices' and see the contents. (When I visit the file in Emacs, I see an empty buffer, but expected to see the same data I'd have seen if I'd run `cat'). I figured this must be a bug in Emacs, and sent in a bug report, but RMS (one of the Emacs developers) thinks it's a bug in the Linux kernel. He says that, since `stat' doesn't claim that `/proc/devices' is a special file, Emacs looks at the size info that `stat' returns, sees that the file is zero bytes long, and thus presents me with an empty buffer. He also says that if `stat' were to claim that `/proc/devices' is a special file, Emacs would be able to read its contents (apparantly Emacs knows how to deal with special files).
Anyway, does this sound like a kernel bug? It would be nice if I could examine the /proc files in Emacs just as I do any other file.
Thanks
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