lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2001]   [Nov]   [4]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
    /
    Date
    From
    SubjectPROPOSAL: dot-proc interface [was: /proc stuff]

    Here's my stab at the problems - please comment,

    We want to avoid these problems:
    1) It is hard to parse (some) /proc files from userspace
    2) As /proc files change, parsers must be changed in userspace

    Still, we want to keep on offering
    3) Human readable /proc files with some amount of pretty-printing
    4) A /proc fs that can be changed as the kernel needs those changes


    Taking care of (3) and (4):

    Maintaining the current /proc files is very simple, and it offers the system
    administrator a lot of functionality that isn't reasonable to take away now.

    * They should stay in a form close to the current one *


    Taking care of (1) and (2):

    For each file "f" in /proc, there will be a ".f" file which is a
    machine-readable version of "f", with the difference that it may contain extra
    information that one may not want to present to the user in "f".

    The dot-proc file is basically a binary encoding of Lisp (or XML), e.g. it is a
    list of elements, wherein an element can itself be a list (or a character string,
    or a host-native numeric type. Thus, (key,value) pairs and lists thereof are
    possible, as well as tree structures etc.

    All data types are stored in the architecture-native format, and a simple
    library should be sufficient to parse any dot-proc file.


    So, we need a small change in procfs that does not in any way break
    compatibility - and we need a few lines of C under LGPL to interface with it.

    Tell me what you think - It is possible that I could do this (or something
    close) in the near future, unless someone shows me the problem with the
    approach.

    Thank you,

    --
    ................................................................
    : 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}...............:
    -
    To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
    the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
    More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
    Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

    \
     
     \ /
      Last update: 2005-03-22 13:12    [W:4.311 / U:0.112 seconds]
    ©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site