Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: Wmmon under FreeBSD
From: mouse () RODENTS MONTREAL QC CA (der Mouse)
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 14:43:39 -0500
I should like to know why more apps don't require the *bsd {proc,kern}fs interface.
Near as I can figure, it goes like this: Nobody mounts them because nobody uses them. Nobody uses them because they're never mounted.
Under modern BSD4.4, the preferred method is using sysctl(3),(8), as opposed to kernfs.
Except kernfs exports some things sysctl doesn't - at least under NetBSD, the variant with which I'm most familiar. What are the sysctl analogs of /kern/msgbuf and /kern/rootdev, in particular? (/kern/rootdev is especially nice because it's directly mountable; with sysctl you'd first have to create a writeable filesystem somewhere to make a /dev entry in, leading to a chicken-and-egg problem.) Also, the filesystem interface has advantages over the sysctl interface, for some uses. In particular, the interface to userland is *much* more stable, meaning that kernel/userland mismatches break it significantly less often. der Mouse mouse () rodents montreal qc ca 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B
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