From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 15 03:18:27 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B4E0116A4BF for ; Mon, 15 Sep 2003 03:18:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from crf-consulting.co.uk (82-44-218-46.cable.ubr10.haye.blueyonder.co.uk [82.44.218.46]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 971CE43FE0 for ; Mon, 15 Sep 2003 03:18:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from nik@freebsd.org) Received: from freebsd.org ([192.168.1.112])h8FAINEH019805; Mon, 15 Sep 2003 11:18:23 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from nik@freebsd.org) Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 17:32:58 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v552) To: Suleiman Souhlal From: Nik Clayton In-Reply-To: <20030912212606.3d04f3ed.refugee@vt.edu> Message-Id: <27FB7A56-E714-11D7-81BC-000393863D48@freebsd.org> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.552) cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: devd/devctl X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 10:18:27 -0000 On Friday, September 12, 2003, at 06:26 pm, Suleiman Souhlal wrote: > I was wondering if it would be a good idea to modify devd and devctl > for them to handle other events than attaching and detaching devices.. > For example, they could be used to mark a network interface as down, > when the network cable is pulled out, and run dhclient when it is put > back in. I think there are other applications too. Just something that occured to me in a slightly G&T addled state. The GNOME folks have this really cool application at the moment called 'dashboard'. Basically it works by receiving what they've dubbed 'clue packets' from whatever application that you happen to be using at the time, and distributing these to multiple backend plugins that either: a) rewrite the clue packet so that it contains additional information, and/or trigger additional clue packets or b) process it in some way, and update the information that's being displayed by the dashboard The canonical example they use at the moment is receiving an e-mail from someone. Your e-mail app sends a clue packet with the e-mail address of the person you've received it from, and the various backends pull out their address details from your address book, a photo, their web page link (if your browser knows it), their picture, the last five messages they've sent you, and so on, and so forth. I wonder if this model could be adopted for kernel and system events. Instead of a devd, usbd, and others, we need a more generic eventd, which can receive events from the kernel, and distribute them to backends, which can act on them, or augment them as necessary. We've reached cruising altitude, so I can't provide web links, but a google for 'gnome dashboard' should turn up useful info. N