Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2012 09:28:35 +0100 From: "Robert N. M. Watson" <rwatson@freebsd.org> To: mdf@FreeBSD.org Cc: bp@freebsd.org, Arnaud Lacombe <lacombar@gmail.com>, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, FreeBSD Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>, kby@freebsd.org, Wojciech Puchar <wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl>, Chris Rees <utisoft@gmail.com> Subject: Re: sysctl filesystem ? Message-ID: <A06A9B92-D650-4BA8-8235-B656D6E0E972@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <CAMBSHm_pZdJLmv%2B=oYW_6VGz-JOTt0rnOtowxnO-05_7_%2BMvVg@mail.gmail.com> References: <CACqU3MXaa0R7fG6Q-EqS3h8PJh__tzNeugBxVyqKHxsCR-wTuQ@mail.gmail.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1206260805450.3572@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <CADLo83_hLe-MUJASLmx%2B8MBj12LOQ_-gsmWNjpzvzZdxwEgStw@mail.gmail.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1206260954120.2004@fledge.watson.org> <CAMBSHm_pZdJLmv%2B=oYW_6VGz-JOTt0rnOtowxnO-05_7_%2BMvVg@mail.gmail.com>
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On 26 Jun 2012, at 15:42, mdf@FreeBSD.org wrote: > While I understand the problems you allude to, the sysctl(8) binary > can protect itself from them. IMO the biggest problem with sysctls > not being files is that it makes no sense from the core UNIX > philosophy that everything is a file. Sockets and pipes and character > devices and even unseekable things like stdout are files; why aren't > these other objects that allow read, write, and have their own > namespace? I think I agree with what you're saying, subject to one modification: = rather than saying "files", say "file descriptors", which are not quite = the same but are, I think, what you mean. This doesn't mean you end up = with a special file system mounted on /foo -- we don't do that for = sockets or pipes --- but rather, we end up with using a similar = object-oriented interface. And hence, BTW, our recent experimental = addition of process descriptors to the API in support of Capsicum. = However, I wonder how well that applies to sysctls, which unlike = pipes/sockets, don't have an event model, etc... Robert=
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